- 


^  l^^/i 

/,* 


.  MISCELLANEOUS     WRITINGS 


ON 


SLAVERY-. 


BY    WILLIAM    JAY. 


BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED    BY    JOHN    P.    JEWETT    &    COMPANY. 

CLEVELAND,    OHIO: 

JEWETT,    PROCTOR,    AND    WORTHINGTON. 
LONDON:    SAMPSON  LOW,    SON   AND    CO. 

1853. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1853,  by  JOHN  P.  JEWETT  &  CO. 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Couit  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


Press  of  Dnmrcll  &  Moore,  10  Devonshire  Street,  Boston. 


CONTENTS. 


INQUIRY  INTO  THE  CHARACTER  AND  TENDENCY  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  COLONIZATION,  AND  AMERICAN  ANTI- 
SLAVERY  SOCIETIES, PAGE  7 

A  VIEW  OF  THE  ACTION  OF  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERN 
MENT,  IN  BEHALF  OF  SLAVERY, 207 

ON  THE  CONDITION  or  THE  FREE  PEOPLE  OF  COLOR 

IN  THE  UNITED  STATES, .,.     .  371 


ADDRESS    TO   THE    FRIENDS  OF  CONSTITUTIONAL 

ERTY,  ON  THE  VIOLATION  BY  THE  UNITED  STATES 
HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE  RIGHT  OF 
PETITION, 397 

INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS  TO  THE  REPROOF  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  CHURCH  CONTAINED  IN  THE  RECENT 
"HISTORY  OF  THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 
IN  AMERICA,"  BY  THE  BISHOP  OF  OXFORD,  .  .  .  409 

A  LETTER  TO  THE  RIGHT  REV.  L.  SILLIMAN  IVES, 
BISHOP  OF  THE  PROTESTANT  CHURCH  IN  THE 
STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA,  ........  453 

ADDRESS  TO  THE  INHABITANTS  OF  NEW  MEXICO  AND 
CALIFORNIA,  ON  THE  OMISSION  BY  CONGRESS  TO 
PROVIDE  THEM  WITH  TERRITORIAL  GOVERNMENTS, 
AND  ON  THE  SOCIAL  AND  POLITICAL  EVILS  OF 
SLAVERY, 491 

LETTER  TO   HON.  WILLIAM   NELSON,   M.  C.,  ON  MR. 

CLAY'S  COMPROMISE, 553 


Vi  CONTENTS. 

A  LETTER  TO  THE  HON.  SAMUEL  A.  ELIOT,  REPRE 
SENTATIVE  IN  CONGRESS  FROM  THE  CITY  OF  BOS 
TON,  IN  REPLY  TO  HIS  APOLOGY  FOR  VOTING  FOR 

THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  BILL, 571 

AN  ADDRESS  TO  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  CHRISTIANS  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES.  SIGNED  BY  A  NUMBER  OF  CLER 
GYMEN  AND  OTHERS, G21 

LETTER  TO  REV.  R.  S.  COOK,  CORRESPONDING  SECRE 
TARY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  TRACT  SOCIETY,  .  .  .  G41 

LETTER  TO  LEWIS  TAPPAN,  ESQ.,  TREASURER  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  MISSIONARY  ASSOCIATION, 661 


I  N  Q  TJ I R  Y 

INTO   THE 

CHARACTER  AND   TENDENCY 

OP  THE 

AMERICAN       COLONIZATION, 

AND 

AMERICAN      A  NT  I- SLA  VERY 
SO  CIETIE  S. 


Give  me  the  liberty  to  know,  to  utter,  and  to  argue  freely,  according  to  my  conscience, 
above  all  liberties.'- — MILTON. 


PREFACE. 


No  allusion  has  been  made  in  the  following  pages  to  certain  popular 
objections  to  the  Colonization  Society ;  nor  have  any  cases  of  individ 
ual  cruelty  been  cited,  to  illustrate  the  evils  of  slavery.  It  is  proper 
that  the  reasons  for  this  departure  from  the  ordinary  mode  of  discussing 
these  two  subjects  should  be  given,  that  they  may  not  be  misunder 
stood. 

The  objections  I  have  omitted  to  notice,  are,  the  mortality  to  which 
the  emigrants  are  exposed  in  consequence  of  the  climate  of  Liberia ; 
the  demoralizing  traffic  which  the  colonists  have  carried  on  with  the 
natives,  in  rum  and  military  stores ;  and  the  improvident  application 
of  the  funds  of  the  Society,  which  has  rendered  it  bankrupt. 

These  objections,  serious  as  they  are  in  themselves,  are  not  insepara 
ble  from  the  system  of  Colonization.  Another,  and  more  salubrious 
site,  may  be  selected ;  the  traffic  complained  of,  may  be  discontinued ; 
and  the  fiscal  affairs  of  the  Society  may  be  managed  with  prudence  and 
economy.  But  there  are  inherent  evils  in  the  system,  and  it  is  impor 
tant  that  the  public  attention  should  not  be  diverted  from  these  evils, 
by  the  contemplation  of  others  which  are  only  accidental. 

So,  also,  it  is  important,  that  the  sinfulness  of  slavery  should  not  be 
merged  in  that  of  its  unauthorized  abuses.  Many  contend  for  the 
lawfulness  of  slavery  who  readily  admit  the  sinfulness  of  insulated  cases 
of  cruelty.  It  has,  therefore,  been  my  object  to  show  that,  admitting 
the  slaves  to  be  treated  as  a  prudent  farmer  treats  his  cattle,  —  that  they 
have  enough  to  eat,  are  sheltered  from  the  inclemency  of  the  weather, 
and  are  not  subjected  to  a  greater  degree  of  severity  than  is  necessary 
to  extort  from  them  a  due  amount  of  labor,  —  American  slavery  is, 
nevertheless,  a  heinous  sin,  and,  like  every  other  sin,  ought  to  be 
immediately  abandoned. 

February,  1835 


PART   I. 

AMERICAN   COLONIZATION  SOCIETY. 


INTRODUCTION. 


ON  the  1st  of  January,  1835,  there  were  in  the  United  States, 
2,245,144  slaves.*  This  number  about  equals  the  population  of 
Holland,  and  exceeds  that  of  Scotland,  of  the  Danish  Dominions,  of  the 
Swiss  Confederation,  and  of  various  Republics  in  South  America. 
These  millions  of  human  beings  are  held  as  chattels  by  a  people  prd^' 
fessing  to  acknowledge,  that  "  all  men  are  created  equal,  and  endowed 
with  certain  unalienable  rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness : "  they  are,  moreover,  kept  in  ignorance,  and 
compelled  to  live  without  God,  and  to  die  without  hope,  by  a  people 
professing  to  reverence  the  obligations  of  Christianity. 

But  slavery  has  ceased  in  other  countries,  where  it  formerly  pre 
vailed  ;  and  may  we  not  hope  that  it  is  gradually  expiring  in  this  ? 
Such  a  hope  is,  alas,  forbidden  by  the  following  statement  of  our  slave 
population,  at  different  periods : 

United  States,  1790,       G97,G97  1835,         2,245,144 

Kentucky,  "  12,430  1830,  165,350 

Sama^  ^  }        1800'         3'489  182'953 

Louisiana,  1810,       34,G60  "  109,631 

Missouri,  "  3,011  "  24,990 

Perhaps,  however,  the  political  evils  of  slavery  may  be  gradually 
mitigated,  and  finally  removed,  by  an  increasing  preponderance  in  the 
white  population.  Unfortunately,  we  are  compelled  by  facts  to  antici 
pate  a  very  different  result.  A  comparison  of  the  census  of  1830,  with 

*  According  to  the  ratio  of  increase  between  1829  and  1830. 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

that  of  1820,  affords  us  the  following  ratio  of  increase  in  the  free  and 
slave  population,  for  the  intermediate  ten  years : 

Free.  Slave. 

North  Carolina,  13.4  per  ct.  20.2  per  ct. 

South  Carolina,  8.7  22.1 

Alabama,  124  180.4 

Mississippi,  6G.8  100.1 

Missouri,  104.3  144.7 
Louisiana,                            25.6  58.7 

Tennessee,  59.5  77.7 

Kentucky,  19.6  30.4 

Arkansas  Territory,  104.3  180 

It  is  obvious,  from  these  details,  that,  if  the  present  system  be  con 
tinued,  the  time  cannot  be  far  distant,  when  the  slaves  will  possess  a 
frightful  numerical  superiority  over  their  masters.  Already  do  they 
bear  to  the  whites,  in  the  slave  States  and  Territories,  the  proportion 
of  1  to  2.79.  In  South  Carolina  and  Louisiana,  they  are  now  a  ma 
jority. 

But  in  our  contemplation  of  slavery,  the  sufferings  of  the  slaves 
claim  our  consideration,  no  less  than  the  dangers  to  which  the  whites 
are  exposed.  The  ordinary  evils  of  slavery,  are,  in  this  country, 
greatly  aggravated  by  a  cruel  and  extensive  slave-trade.  Various 
circumstances  have,  of  late  years,  combined  to  lessen  the  demand  for 
slave-labor  in  the  more  northern,  and  to  increase  it  in  the  more  south 
ern  and  western  portions  of  the  slave-region ;  while  the  enlarged 
consumption  of  sugar  and  cotton  is  enhancing  the  market  value  of 
slaves.  The  most  profitable  employment  of  this  species  of  labor,  is 
unfortunately  found  in  those  States,  which,  from  their  recent  settle 
ment,  possess  immense  tracts  which  are  still  to  be  brought  into  cultiva 
tion,  and  in  which,  consequently,  there  now  is,  and  will  long  continue 
to  be,  an  urgent  demand  for  slaves.  Hence  has  arisen  a  prodigious 
and  annually  increasing  transportation  of  slaves  to  the  south  and  west. 

There  are  no  official  data  from  which  the  amount  of  this  transporta 
tion  can  be  ascertained ;  but  from  facts  that  have  transpired,  and  from 
estimates  made  at  the  South,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  exceeds 
thirty  thousand  a  year.  One  of  the  peculiar  abominations  of  this  trade, 
is,  that  its  victims  are  almost  exclusively  children  and  youths.  Instead 
of  removing  whole  families  and  gangs  of  negroes,  the  dealers  for  the 
most  part,  according  to  their  own  advertisements,  select  individuals, 
"  of  both  sexes,  from  twelve  to  twenty-five  years." 

He  surely  can  have  little  claim  to  the  character  of  a  patriot  or 
a  Christian,  who  does  not  desire  that  his  country  may  be  delivered 
from  the  sin  and  curse  of  slavery :  or  who  refuses  even  to  consider  the 


means  proposed  for  effecting  this  great  object. 

A  powerful  institution  is  now  in  operation,  which  professes  to  be,  not 
merely  a  remedy  for  slavery,  but  the  ONLY  remedy  that  can  be 
devised.  It  appeals  to  religion  and  patriotism,  for  those  pecuniary 
aids,  which,  it  contends,  are  alone  wanting,  to  enable  it  to  transport  our 
whole  colored  population  to  Africa,  there  to  enjoy  the  freedom  denied 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

to  them  here ;  and  there  to  become  the  dispensers  of  religion,  and  the 
arts  and  sciences,  to  that  benighted  continent. 

If  the  claims  of  the  American  Colonization  Society  are  founded  in 
truth,  they  cannot  be  resisted  without  guilt.  Very  many,  however, 
who  are  alike  distinguished  for  piety  and  talents,  instead  of  allowing 
these  claims,  strenuously  maintain,  that  the  practical  tendency  of  the 
Society,  is  to  perpetuate  the  evils  it  professes  to  remove  ;  and  to  extend 
to  Africa,  the  vices,  but  not  the  blessings  of  civilization.  These  con 
flicting  opinions,  on  a  subject  so  momentous,  demand  a  calm  and 
patient  investigation  ;  since  he  who  either  supports  or  opposes  the 
Colonization  Society,  without  first  ascertaining  its  true  character,  the 
results  it  has  produced,  and  the  influence  it  exerts,  incurs  the  hazard, 
as  far  as  his  example  and  efforts  extend,  of  increasing  the  wretchedness 
he  would  relieve,  and  of  fastening  upon  his  country,  the  burden  under 
which  she  is  struggling. 

If,  in  a  question  involving  the  temporal  and  eternal  happiness  of 
unborn  millions,  we  could  satisfy  our  consciences  by  bowing  to  the 
authority  of  great  names,  we  should  still  be  painfully  embarrassed  in 
selecting  those,  to  whose  decision  we  should  surrender  our  own  judg 
ments.  The  excellent  of  the  earth  are  to  be  found  among  the  friends 
and  enemies  of  this  association ;  and  if  various  ecclesiastical  bodies  in 
our  own  country,  have  recommended  it  to  the  patronage  of  their 
churches,  it  is  regarded  with  abhorrence  by  almost  the  whole  religious 
community  of  Great  Britain ;  and  the  last  effort  made  by  AViLBER- 
FORCE  in  the  great  cause  of  negro  liberty,  was,  to  address  to  the  people 
of  Great  Britain  his  solemn  protest  against  the  doctrines  and  conduct  of 
the  American  Colonization  Society. 

This  Institution  may  have  been  formed  by  good  men,  and  from  the 
purest  motives,  yet  it  is  possible  that  its  operation  may  not  have  been 
such  as  they  anticipated.  "  So  many  unforseen,  concealed,  and  inap 
preciable  causes,"  says  a  very  eminent  writer,  "  have  an  influence  on 
human  institutions,  that  it  is  impossible  to  judge  a  priori  of  their 
effects.  Nothing  but  a  long  series  of  experiments  can  unfold  these 
effects,  and  point  out  the  means  of  counteracting  those  that  are  hurtful." 

The  following  inquiry  has  been  commenced,  and  pursued  under  a 
deep  sense  of  the  importance  of  the  subject,  and  with  a  solemn  recol 
lection,  that  no  deviation  from  truth  can  escape  the  notice  and  dis 
pleasure  of  HIM,  unto  whom  all  hearts  are  open,  and  from  whom  no 
secrets  are  hid. 


2* 


CHAPTER    I. 

ORIGIN,    CONSTITUTION,    AND     CHARACTER    OF    THE    AMERICAN 
COLONIZATION    SOCIETY. 

ON  the  23d  of  December,  1816,  the  Legislature  of  Virginia 
passed  a  resolution  requesting  the  Governor  to  correspond  with 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  "  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
a  territory  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  or  at  some  other  place  not 
within  any  of  the  States,  or  territorial  governments  of  the  United 
States,  to  serve  as  an  asylum  for  such  persons  of  color  as  are 
now  free,  and  may  desire  the  same,  and  for  those  who  may 
hereafter  be  emancipated  within  this  Commonwealth." 

Within  a  few  days  of  the  date  of  this  resolution,  a  meeting 
was  held  at  Washington  to  take  this  very  subject  into  consider 
ation.  It  was  composed  almost  entirely  of  southern  gentlemen. 
Judge  Washington  presided:  Mr.  Clay,  Mr.  Randolph,  and 
others,  took  part  in  the  discussions  which  ensued,  and  which 
resulted  in  the  organization  of  the  American  Colonization 
Society.  Judge  Washington  was  chosen  President,  and  of  the 
seventeen  Vice  Presidents,  only  five  were  selected  from  the  free 
States,  while  the  twelve  managers  were,  it  is  believed,  without 
one  exception,  slave-holders. 

The  first  two  articles  of  the  constitution  are  the  only  ones 
relating  to  the  object  of  the  Society.  They  are  as  follows  : 

Art  I.  This  Society  shall  be  called  the  American  Society  for  col 
onizing  the  free  people  of  color  of  the  United  States. 

Art.  II.  The  object  to  which  its  attention  is  to  be  exclusively  di 
rected,  is  to  promote  and  execute  a  plan  for  colonizing  (with  their 


16  JAY'S  WORKS. 

consent)  the  free  people  of  color  residing  in  our  country,  in  Africa,  or 
such  other  place  as  Congress  shall  deem  most  expedient.  And  the 
Society  shall  act  to  effect  this  object  in  cooperation  with  the  general 
government  and  such  of  the  States  as  may  adopt  regulations  on  the 
subject. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  this  constitution  lias  no  preamble 
setting  forth  the  motives  which  led  to  its  adoption,  and  the 
sentiments  entertained  by  its  authors.  There  is  no  one  single 
principle  of  duty  or  policy  recognized  in  it,  and  the  members 
may,  without  inconsistency,  be  Christians  or  infidels ;  they  may 
be  the  friends  or  enemies  of  slavery,  and  may  be  actuated  by 
kindness  or  by  hatred  towards  "  the  free  people  of  color." 

The  omission  of  all  avowal  of  motives  was,  probably,  not 
without  design,  and  has  not  been  without  effect.  It  has  secured 
the  cooperation  of  three  distinct  classes.  First,  such  as  sincerely 
desire  to  afford  the  free  blacks  an  asylum  from  the  oppression 
they  suffer  here,  and  by  their  means  to  extend  to  Africa  the 
blessings  of  Christianity  and  civilization,  and  who  at  the  same 
time  flatter  themselves  that  colonization  will  have  a  salutary 
influence  in  accelerating  the  abolition  of  slavery :  secondly,  such 
as  expect  to  enhance  the  value  and  security  of  slave  property, 
by  removing  the  free  blacks :  and,  thirdly,  such  as  seek  relief 
from  a  bad  population,  without  the  trouble  and  expense  of 
improving  it. 

The  doors  of  the  Society  being  thrown  open  to  all,  a  hetero 
geneous  multitude  has  entered,  and  within  its  portals  men  are 
brought  into  contact,  who  in  the  ordinary  walks  of  life,  are 
separated  by  a  common  repulsion.  The  devoted  missionary, 
ready  to  pour  out  his  life  on  the  sands  of  Africa,  is  jostled  by 
the  trafficker  in  human  flesh ;  the  humble,  self-denying  Christian, 
listens  to  the  praises  of  the  Society  from  the  unblushing  profli 
gate  ;  and  the  friend  of  human  rights  and  human  happiness 
greets  as  his  fellow-laborer  the  man  whose  very  contribution  to 
the  cause  is  extorted  from  the  unrequited  labor  of  his  fellow-men. 
This  anomalous  amalgamation  of  characters  and  motives,  has 
necessarily  led  to  a  lamentable  compromise  of  principle.  What 
ever  may  be  the  object  each  member  proposes  to  himself,  he  is 
conscious  it  can  be  effected  only  by  the  harmonious  cooperation 
of  all  the  other  members.  Hence  it  is  all  important  to  avoid 


AMERICAN   COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  17 

giving  and  taking  offence ;  and  never  was  the  maxim,  "  bear  and 
forbear,"  more  scrupulously  obeyed.  Certain  irreconcilable 
opinions,  but  regarded  by  their  holders  as  fundamental,  are,  by 
common  consent,  wholly  suppressed ;  while  in  matters  of  less 
importance,  the  expression  of  opposite  sentiments  is  freely 
allowed,  and  borne  with  commendable  patience. 

The  advocates  of  slavery  forbear  shocking  its  opponents  by 
justifying  it  in  the  abstract,  and  in  return  for  this  complaisance, 
those  opponents  forbear  condemning  it  in  particulars.  Each 
party  consents  fo  make  certain  concessions  to  conciliate  the 
other.  The  Southron  admits  slavery  to  be  a  political  evil ;  the 
northern  member  courteously  replies,  that  under  present  circum 
stances,  it  is  unavoidable,  and  therefore  justifiable.  The  actual 
condition  of  the  slave,  his  mental  bondage,  his  bodily  sufferings, 
are  understood  to  be  forbidden  topics. 

The  oppressor  of  the  free  negro  dwells  on  his  depravity  and 
degradation  ;  the  friend  of  the  free  negro  admits,  and  often 
aggravates  the  charges  against  him,  but  carefully  abstains  from 
all  allusion  to  the  true  causes  of  that  depravity  and  degradation, 
unless  to  excuse  them  as  being  inevitable.  Both  parties  unite 
in  depicting  in  glowing  colors,  the  effects  of  the  oppression  of  the 
free  negro,  in  order  to  prove  the  humanity  of  banishing  him  from 
the  country  ;  while  both  refrain  from  all  attempts  to  remove  or 
lessen  the  oppression. 

The  simplicity  of  the  object  of  the  Society  as  stated  in  its 
constitution,  tends  in  a  powerful  degree  to  encourage  and  enforce 
this  compromise  of  principle.  The  constitution,  in  fact,  vests  a 
discretionary  veto  in  every  member  on  the  expression  of  unpal 
atable  opinions.  The  attention  of  the  Society  is  to  be  "  exclu 
sively  "  directed  to  the  colonization  of  persons  of  color,  and  the 
constitution  contains  no  allusion  to  slavery.  Hence  any  denun 
ciation  of  slavery  as  sinful,*  any  arguments  addressed  to  slave 


*  Candor  requires  the  admission  that  there  is  at  least  one  exception  to  this 
remark.  At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Society  in  1831,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Breck- 
enridge,  in  his  speech,  insisted  on  the  sinfulness  of  slavery.  A  distinguished 
lay  member  of  the  Society,  who  was  present,  complained  to  the  author  of  Mr. 
B.'s  unconstitutional  conduct,  and  declared  that  he  was  strongly  tempted 
publicly  to  call  him  to  order. 


18  JAY'S  WORKS. 

holders  to  induce  them  to  manumit  their  slaves,  would  be  uncon 
stitutional,  and  are  therefore  carefully  avoided.  But  the  free 
blacks  cannot  be  transported  without  money,  and  much  money 
cannot  be  had,  without  the  aid  of  the  enemies  of  slavery.  It  is 
therefore  permitted  to  represent  the  Society  as  an  antidote  to 
slavery,  as  tending  to  effect  its  abolition,  anything  in  the  consti 
tution  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  But  then  this  abolition  is 
to  be  brought  about  at  some  future  indefinite  period.  True  it  is, 
that  the  constitution  is  as  silent,  with  respect  to  manumission,  as 
it  is  to  slavery ;  but  by  common  consent,  this  silence  is  not 
permitted  to  interpose  the  slightest  obstacle  to  a  unanimous, 
vigorous,  and  persevering  opposition  to  present  manumission. 
Were  the  American  Bible  Society  to  deprecate  the  emancipation 
of  slaves,  and  to  censure  all  who  proposed  it,  the  outrage  would 
excite  the  indignation  of  the  whole  community.  But  what  would 
be  a  perversion  of  its  avowed  object  in  a  Bible  Society,  is  per 
fectly  lawful  in  a  Colonization  Society,  not  because  it  is  author 
ized  by  the  constitution,  but  because  it  is  expedient  to  conciliate 
the  slave-holders. 

Many  of  the  supporters  of  the  Society  are  interested  in  the 
American  slave-trade*  —  a  trade  replete  with  cruelty  and 
injustice.  To  condemn  this  trade,  or  to  labor  for  its  suppression, 
would  be  unconstitutional.  The  African  slave-trade  rather 
interferes  with,  than  promotes  the  interests  of  the  slave-owners, 
and  the  Society  deems  it  unnecessary  to  seek  for  any  constitu 
tional  warrant  to  justify  the  most  violent  denunciation  of  the 
foreign  traffic  ;  or  an  application  to  foreign  powers  to  declare  it 
piratical.f 

To  hold  up  the  free  blacks  to  the  detestation  of  the  community, 
is  unconstitutional ;  to  recommend  them  to  the  sympathy  of 
Christians,  to  propose  schools  for  their  instruction,  plans  for 
encouraging  their  industry,  and  efforts  for  their  moral  and 
religious  improvement,  would  be  such  a  flagrant  departure  from 
the  "exclusive"  object  of  the  Society,  that  no  member  has 

*  The  first  President  of  the  Society,  was,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  no 
inconsiderable  dealer. 

fSee  proceedings  of  Am.  Col.  Society  of  20th  Jamiary,  1827. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  19 

hitherto  been  rash  enough  to  make  the  attempt.  At  the  same 
time  it  is  quite  constitutional  to  vindicate  the  cruel  laws  which  are 
crushing  these  people  in  the  dust,  and  to  show  that  the  oppres 
sion  they  suffer  is  "  an  ordination  of  Providence." 

The  constitution  indeed  forbids  the  transportation  of  the  free 
blacks  without  "  their  consent ; "  but  it  is  very  constitutional  to 
justify  and  encourage  such  oppression  of  them,  as  shall  compel 
them,  to  seek  in  the  wilds  of  Africa,  a  refuge  from  American 
cruelty. 

The  natural  result  of  this  compromise  of  principle,  this  sup 
pression  of  truth,  this  sacrifice  to  unanimity,  has  been  the 
adoption  of  expediency  as  the  standard  of  right  and  wrong,  in 
the  place  of  the  revealed  will  of  God.  Unmindful  of  the  poet's 
precept, 

Be  virtuous  ends  pursued  by  virtuous  means, 
Nor  think  the  intention  sanctifies  the  deed, 

good  men  and  good  Christians  have  been  tempted  by  their  zeal 
for  the  Society,  to  countenance  opinions  and  practices  incon 
sistent  with  justice  and  humanity.  Confident  that  their  motives 
were  good  and  their  object  important,  they  have  been  too  little 
scrupulous  of  the  means  they  employed ;  and  hence  the  Society 
has  actually  exerted  a  demoralizing  influence  over  its  own  mem 
bers,  by  leading  them  occasionally  to  advance  in  its  behalf 
opinions  at  variance  with  truth  and  Christianity.  Unhappily 
the  evil  influence  of  the  Society  has  not  been  confined  to  its  own 
members.  It  has,  to  a  lamentable  extent,  vitiated  the  moral 
sense  of  the  community,  by  reconciling  public  opinion  to  the 
continuance  of  slavery,  and  by  aggravating  those  sinful  pre 
judices  against  the  free  blacks,  which  are  subjecting  them  to 
insult  and  persecution,  and  denying  them  the  blessings  of  edu 
cation  and  religious  instruction. 

We  are  sensible  that  these  are  grave  assertions,  and  that 
many  will  deem  them  very  extraordinary  ones.  The  reader's 
belief  is  not  solicited  for  them  at  present,  nor  will  it  be  for  any 
assertion  hereafter  made,  till  supported  by  unquestionable 
evidence.  The  remarks  in  this  chapter  are  intended  only  as  a 
general  statement  of  the  case  against  the  Society,  and  as  an 


20  JAY'S  WORKS. 

explanation  of  the  process  by  which  many  excellent  men 
belonging  to  it,  have  insensibly  been  seduced  into  conduct  of  at 
least  doubtful  morality.  The  charges  now  made  will  in  due 
time  be  substantiated  by  authentic  facts,  and  by  quotations  from 
the  language,  both  official  and  private,  of  members  of  the 
Society. 

True  it  is,  that  colonizationists  protest  most  earnestly  against 
being  judged  by  any  but  the  official  language  of  the  Board  of 
Managers.  To  the  justice  of  this  protest  it  is  impossible  to 
assent.  The  Society  is  arraigned  at  the  bar  of  the  public,  not 
for  the  object  avowed  in  the  constitution,  but  for  the  influence  it 
exerts  in  vindicating  and  prolonging  slavery,  and  in  augment 
ing  the  oppression  of  the  free  blacks.  This  influence,  if  exerted 
at  all,  must  be  exerted  by  individuals  in  the  capacity  of  mem 
bers,  agents,  and  officers  of  the  Society,  and  the  only  means 
they  possess  of  exerting  this  influence,  is  by  the  expression  of 
their  sentiments.  To  insist,  therefore,  that  these  sentiments 
may  not  be  quoted,  to  show  what  influence  the  Society  does 
exert,  is  to  contradict  the  plainest  suggestions  of  common  sense. 
Certainly  the  whole  Society  is  not  necessarily  responsible  for 
the  sentiments  of  a  single  member ;  but  the  question  is  not, 
whether  one  or  two  or  more  members  have  said  improper  things, 
but  whether  the  influence  generally  exerted  by  the  Society,  is 
what  it  is  alleged  to  be ;  and  this  is  a  question  of  fact,  to  be 
decided  by  evidence,  and  that  evidence  necessarily  consists  of 
the  opinions  expressed  by  its  officers,  agents,  and  distinguished 
members,  and  auxiliary  associations. 

This  protest,  moreover,  comes  with  an  ill  grace  from  a  Society 
that  has  appealed  to  the  letters  and  the  speeches  of  its  members, 
to  repel  the  objection  urged  against  it  in  certain  quarters,  of  a 
desire  to  interfere  with  the  rights  of  slave-holders.*  Should 
the  members  and  officers  of  an  Anti-Slavery  Society,  continually, 
at  its  public  meetings,  deliver  addresses  in  favor  of  intermar 
riages  between  whites  and  blacks  —  should  auxiliaries  pass 
resolutions  approving  of  such  marriages  —  should  these  addresses 

*See  Afr.  Rep.,  VI,  198. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  21 

and  resolutions  be  published  and  circulated  at  the  expense  of 
the  Society,  and  should  its  official  magazine  recommend  such 
marriages,  —  would  it  not  be  the  excess  of  disingenuousness  for 
the  Society  to  attempt  to  repel  the  charge  that  its  influence  was 
exerted  to  bring  about  an  amalgamation  of  the  two  races,  by 
denying  that  it  was  responsible  for  the  language  of  its  members, 
and  by  appealing  to  its  constitution  and  official  reports,  in  which 
no  allusion  was  made  to  the  subject  ?  All  that  can  fairly  be 
demanded,  is  that  the  quotations  be  honestly  made,  and  that  they 
be  sufficiently  numerous  and  explicit  to  establish  the  facts  they 
are  brought  to  prove.  It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed,  that 
we  intend  to  prove  our  charges  against  the  Society,  only  by  the 
declarations  of  individual  members.  On  the  contrary,  we  shall 
summon  as  witnesses,  the  MANAGERS  of  the  parent  Society, 
and  its  auxiliaries  ;  and  shall  exhibit  in  evidence  their  official 
reports  and  addresses.  In  the  following  pages  will  be  found 
numerous  extracts  from  colonization  documents ;  and  it  is  right 
to  observe,  that  they  are  for  the  most  part  merely  selections,  and 
bearing  generally  but  a  small  proportion  to  the  whole  number 
of  extracts  to  the  same  .point,  that  might  have  been  adduced. 
Some  few  of  the  extracts  have  been  made  by  other  writers  ;  but 
the  great  mass  of  them  have  been  selected  by  the  author,  and 
in  no  instance  has  he  given  a  quotation  which  he  does  not  believe 
is  fairly  and  honestly  made.  To  prevent  mistakes,  it  may  be 
well  to  mention,  that  the  African  Repository  is  a  monthly  maga 
zine,  and  is,  as  appears  from  the  title-page,  "  published  by  order 
of  the  Managers  of  the  American  Colonization  Society."  The 
Editor  is  understood  to  be  the  Secretary  of  the  Society.  This 
periodical,  together  with  the  annual  reports,  and  occasional 
official  addresses,  is  the  only  publication  for  which  the  man 
agers  of  the  Society  are  responsible ;  when  colonization  news 
papers  are  mentioned,  nothing  more  is  intended  by  the  expres 
sion,  than  that  they  are  papers  which  espouse  the  cause  of  the 
Society. 


22  JAY'S  WORKS. 


CHAPTER    II. 

INFLUENCE     OF     THE     SOCIETY    ON     THE     CONDITION    OF    FREE 
PERSONS    OF    COLOR. 

THE  object  of  the  Society  is  declared  by  the  constitution,  to 
be  exclusively  the  colonization  of  free  persons  of  color,  with 
their  own  consent.  Now  there  is  nothing  in  this  object  neces 
sarily  benevolent.  A  colony  may  be  established  for  commercial 
purposes,  or  as  a  military  station,  or  as  a  receptacle  for  convicts, 
or  to  aid  the  diffusion  of  Christianity.  The  absence  in  the 
constitution  of  all  avowed  motive  for  the  proposed  colony, 
invites  the  cooperation  of  all  who  advocate  the  scheme  from 
any  motive  whatever.  For  the  purpose  of  raising  money,  it  is 
the  policy  of  the  Society  to  appeal  to  all  the  various  and 
discordant  motives  that  can  be  incited  in  behalf  of  the  colony. 
A  strong  and  very  general  prejudice  exists  against  the  free 
blacks.  It  is  unfortunately  the  policy  of  the  Society  to  aggra 
vate  this  prejudice,  since  the  more  we  abominate  these  people, 
the  more  willing  we  shall  be  to  pay  money  for  the  purpose  of 
getting  rid  of  them.  The  influence  of  the  doctrine  of  expedi 
ency  on  good  men,  will  be  seen  in  the  unchristian  language  they 
have  used  in  regard  to  this  unhappy  and  oppressed  portion  of 
their '  fellow-men. 

"  Free  blacks  are  a  greater  NUISANCE  than  even  slaves  themselves." 
Address  of  C.  C.  Harper,  Afr.  Rep.,  II,  189. 

"  A  horde  of  miserable  people  —  the  objects  of  universal  suspicion  — 
subsisting  by  .plunder."  Speech  of  Gen.  Mercer,  Vice  President. 

"  Of  all  classes  of  our  population,  the  most  vicious  is  that  of  the  free 
colored  —  contaminated  themselves,  they  extend  their  vices  to  all 
around  them."  Speech  of  Mr.  Clay,  Vice  President,  12th  Report,  p.  21 . 

"  Averse  to  labor,  with  no  incentives  to  industry,  or  motives  to  respect, 
they  maintain  a  precarious  existence  by  petty  thefts  and  plunder." 
African  Rep.,  VI,  135. 

"  They  are  alike  injurious  by  their  conduct  and  example  to  all  other 
classes  of  society."  Memorial  of  Manchester  Col.  Soc.  to  Virginia 
Legislature. 

"  A  large  mass  of  human  beings  who  hang  as  a  vile  excrescence  upon 
society."  Address  of  C.  L.  Mosby,  before  a  Col.  Soc.  in  Virginia. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  23 

"  This  class  of  persons  a  CURSE  AND  CONTAGION  wherever  they 
reside."  African  Rep.,  Ill,  203. 

"  Of  all  the  descriptions  of  our  population,  and  of  either  portion  of" 
the  African  race,  the  free  persons  of  color  are  by  far,  as  a  class,  the 
most  corrupt,  depraved  and  abandoned."  Speech  of  Mr.  Clay,  African 
Rep.,  VI,  12. 

"  An  anomalous  race  of  beings,  the  most  depraved  upon  earth." 
African  Rep.,  VII,  230. 

"  They  are  a  mildew  upon  our  fields,  a  scourge  to  our  backs,  and  a 
stain  upon  our  escutcheon."  Memorial  of  Kentucky  Col.  Soc.  to  Con 
gress. 

"  I  will  look  no  farther  when  I  seek  for  the  most  degraded,  the  most 
abandoned  race  on  the  earth,  but  rest  my  eye  on  this  people."  Address 
before  the  Lyncliburg  Col.  Society. 

"  There  is  a  class  (free  blacks)  among  us,  introduced  by  violence, 
notoriously  ignorant,  degraded  and  miserable,  mentally  diseased, 
broken-spirited,  acted  upon  by  no  motives  to  honorable  exertions, 
scarcely  reached  in  their  debasement  by  the  heavenly  light."  Edi 
torial  Article,  Afr.  Rep.,  I,  68. 

We  may  here  remark,  that  the  tone  of  these  extracts  is  very 
different  from  that  used  when  the  speaker  desires  to  excite 
sympathy  for  the  wretched.  We  are  told  that  these  people  are 
vicious  and  debased,  but  no  hint  is  given  that  their  vice  and 
debasement  are  the  result  of  sinful  prejudices  and  cruel  laws.  { 
No  appeal  is  made  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity  to  pour  oil  and  * 
wine  into  the  wound  of  suffering  humanity.  We  are  not  re 
minded  that  these  wretches  are  our  brethren,  for  whom  Christ 
died.  Nothing  is  omitted  to  impress  us  with  a  sense  of  the 
depth  of  the  misery  into  which  they  are  plunged ;  but  for  what 
object  are  these  frightful  pictures  presented  to  us  ?  Is  it  to  urge 
us  to  feed  the  hungry,  to  clothe  the  naked,  to  instruct  the 
ignorant,  and  to  reform  the  wicked  ?  No,  but  to  transport  them 
to  Africa ! 

To  an  unsophisticated  Christian  it  would  seem  that  the  true 
way  of  relieving  the  wretchedness  and  vice  of  these  people 
would  be,  first  to  protest  against  their  unrighteous  oppression, 
and  to  procure  the  repeal  of  those  laws  which  forbid  their 
instruction  ;  and  then  to  make  them  partakers  of  the  blessings  of 
education  and  religion.  But  far  from  the  Colonization  Society 
are  all  such  old-fashioned  wrays  of  doing  good.  Instead  of  pro- 


24  JAY'S  WORKS. 

testing  against  the  causes  of  all  this  misery,  THE  SOCIETY  EX 
CUSES  AND  JUSTIFIES  THE  OPPRESSION  OF  THE  FREE  NEGROES, 
AND  THE  PREJUDICES  AGAINST  THEM. 

"  SEVERE  NECESSITY  places  them  (free  negroes)  in  a  class  of 
degraded  beings."  Address  of  Mr.  Hives  to  Lynchburg  Col.  Soc.,  Afr. 
Rep.,  V,  238. 

"  The  severe  legislation, — I  will  not  say  that  under  all  circumstances  it 
is  too  severe, — the  severe  legislation  of  the  slave  States,  which  drives 
their  emancipated  blacks  to  the  free  States,  and  scatters  the  NUISANCE 
there,  attests  that  we  have  a  share  in  this  evil."  Speech  of  G.  Smith, 
Esq.,  Vice  President,  14th  Report,  p.  xiii. 

"  This  law,"  (a  law  by  which  a  manumitted  negro  becomes  again  a 
slave  if  he  remains  twelve  months  in  the  State,)  "  odious  and  unjust  as  it 
may  at  first  view  appear,  and  hard  as  it  may  seem  to  bear  upon  the  liber 
ated  negro,  was  doubtless  dictated  by  sound  policy,  and  its  repeal  would 
be  regarded  by  none  with  more  unfeigned  regret  than  by  the  friends 
of  African  Colonization.  It  has  restrained  many  masters  from  giving 
freedom  to  their  slaves,  and  has  thereby  contributed  to  check  the  growth 
of  an  evil  already  too  great  and  formidable."  Memorial  from  Powhat- 
tan  Col.  Soc.  to  Virginia  Legislature. 

"I  am  clear,  that  whether  we  consider  it  with  reference  to  the 
welfare  of  the  State,  or  the  happiness  of  the  blacks,  it  were  better  to 
have  them  left  in  CHAINS,  than  to  have  liberated  them  to  receive  such 
freedom  as  they  enjoy,  and  greater  freedom  we  cannot,  must  not  allow 
them."  Afr.  Rep.,  Ill,  197. 

"  The  habits,  the  feelings,  all  the  prejudices  of  society,  prejudices 
which  neither  refinement,  nor  argument,  nor  education,  NOR  RELIGION 
ITSELF  can  subdue,  mark  the  people  of  color,  whether  bond  or  free, 
as  the  subjects  of  a  degradation  inevitable  and  incurable"  Address  of 
the  Connecticut  Col.  Soc. 

"  The  managers  consider  it  clear  that  causes  exist  and  are  now 
operating  to  prevent  their  improvement  and  elevation  to  any  consider 
able  extent  as  a  class  in  this  country,  which  are  fixed  not  only  beyond  the 
control  of  the  friends  of  humanity,  but  of  any  human  power;  CHRIS 
TIANITY  can  not  do  for  them  here  what  it  will  do  for  them  in  Africa. 
This  is  not  the  fault  of  the  colored  man,  nor  of  the  white  man,  but 
AN  ORDINATION  OF  PROVIDENCE,  and  no  more  to  be  changed  than 
the  laws  of  nature."  15th  Rep.,  p.  47. 

"  We  do  not  ask  that  the  provisions  of  our  constitution  and  statute 
book  should  be  so  modified  as  to  relieve  and  exalt  the  condition  of  the 
colored  people  whilst  they  remain  with  us.  Let  these  provisions  stand 
in  ALL  THEIR  RIGOR  to  work  out  the  ultimate  and  unbounded  good 
of  these  people."  Memorial  of  the  New  York  Stale  Col.  Soc.  to  the 
Legislature. 

"  If  we  were  constrained  to  admire  so  uncommon  a  being,"  (a  pious, 
highly  cultivated,  scientific  negro,)  "  our  very  admiration  would  be 
mingled  with  disgust,  because  in  the  physical  organization  of  his  frame 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  25 

we  meet  an  insurmountable  barrier  even  to  approach  to  social  inter 
course,  and  in  the  Egyptian  color  which  nature  has  stamped  on  his 
features,  a  principle  of  repulsion  so  strong  as  to  forbid  the  idea  of  a 
communion,  cither  of  interest,  or  of  feeling,  as  utterly  abhorrent." 
Afr.  Rep.,  VII,  p.  331. 

We  find  from  the  foregoing  extracts  that  the  Board  of  Man 
agers  of  the  American  Colonization  Society  officially  declare, 
that  no  human  power  can  counteract  the  causes  which  prevent 
the  elevation  and  improvement  of  the  free  black  in  this  country. 
That  not  even  the  religion  of  Christ  can  in  this  land  of  light,  of 
Bibles,  and  of  temples,  do  for  him  what  it  can  amid  the  darkness 
and  paganism  of  Africa.  And  we  find  a  powerful  State  Society 
recommending  to  the  Legislature  to  do  evil  that  good  may  come. 
Now  if  it  be  true,  that  the  degradation  of  the  free  blacks  is 
inevitable,  and  cannot  even  be  removed  by  Christianity,  then, 
indeed,  as  the  Society  affirms,  it  is  not  the  "  fault "  of  the  white 
man,  and  lie  not  being  in  fault,  there  is  no  reason  why  he 
should  change  his  conduct  towards  them  or  repeal  those  laws 
which  Mr  Smith  will  not  say  are  under  all  circumstances  "  too 
severe."  Let  us  see  what  are  these  laws,  which  a  most  worthy 
colonizationist  and  a  distinguished  officer  of  the  Society  inti 
mates  are  not  too  severe ;  and  what  are  those  causes  of  degra 
dation  which  we  are  assured  by  the  Board  of  Managers  are  an 
ordination  of  Providence,  and  no  more  to  be  changed  than  the 
laws  of  nature. 

In  some  of  the  States,  if  a  free  man  of  color  is  accused  of 
crime,  he  is  denied  the  benefit  of  those  forms  of  trial  which  the 
Common  Law  has  established  for  the  protection  of  innocence. 
Thus  in  South  Carolina  it  is  thought  quite  unnecessary  to  give 
a  Grand  and  Petit  Jury  the  trouble  of  inquiring  into  his  case ; 
he  can  be  hung  without  so  much  ceremony.  But  who  is  a  colored 
man  ?  We  answer,  the  fairest  man  in  Carolina,  if  it  can  be  proved 
that  a  drop  of  negro  blood  flowed  in  the  veins  of  his  mother.  The 
following  extract  from  a  late  Charleston  paper  gives  us  a 
curious  instance  of  the  administration  of  criminal  justice  in  a 
Christian  country  in  the  nineteenth  century : 

"  TRIAL  FOR  MURDER.  —  William  Tann,  a  free  colored  man,  was 
tried  on  Friday  last,  at  John's  Island,  for  the  murder  of  Moses,  the 
3* 


26  JAY'S  WORKS. 

slave  of  Jos.  D.  Jenkins,  Esq.,  of  that  place.  The  Court  consisted  of 
William  H.  Inglesby  and  Alexander  H.  Brown,  Esqrs.,  Judicial  Magis 
trates,"  (Justices  of  the  Peace,)  "of  this  city,  together  vrithjive  free 
holders.  The  murder  was  committed  at  John's  Island  on  the  4th  July, 
1832,  Tann  shooting  down  Moses  with  a  musket  loaded  with  buckshot. 
Tann  was  at  that  time  overseer  of  a  Mr.  Murray,  and  from  the  fairness 
of  his  complexion  was  thought  to  be  and  passed  for  a  WHITE  MAN. 
He  was  accordingly  bound  over  to  answer  for  this  offence  to  the 
COURT  OF  SESSIONS,  but  it  having  been  decided  on  an  issue  ordered 
and  tried  at  Walterborough,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  his  caste, 
that  he  was  of  MIXED  BLOOD,  he  was  turned  over  by  the  Court,  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  Magistrates  and  Freeholders.  The  Court  found  him 
guilty,  and  sentenced  him  to  be  hung  on  Friday,  the  24th  April,  next," 
1835. — Charleston  Courier. 

In  South  Carolina,  if  a  free  negro  "  entertains  "  a  runaway 
slave,  lie  forfeits  ten  pounds,  and  if  unable  to  pay  the  fine,  which 
must  be  the  case  ninety-nine  times  in1  a  hundred,  he  is  to  be  sold 
as  a  slave  for  life.  In  1827,  &free  woman  and  her  three  children 
were  thus  sold,  for  harboring  two  slave  children. 

In  Mississippi,  every  negro  or  mulatto,  not  being  able  to  prove 
himself  free,  may  be  sold  as  a  slave.  Should  the  certificate  of 
his  manumission,  or  the  evidence  of  his  parent's  freedom,  be 
lost  or  stolen,  lie  is  reduced  to  hopeless  bondage.  This  provision 
extends  to  most  of  the  slave  States,  and  is  in  full  operation  in  the 
District  of  Columbia. 

In  South  Carolina,  any  assembly  of  free  negroes,  even  in  the 
presence  of  white  persons,  "  in  a  confined  or  secret  place,  for  the 
purpose  of  mental  instruction"  is  an  unlawful  assembly,  and  may 
be  dispersed  by  a  magistrate,  who  is  authorized  to  inflict  twenty 
lashes  on  each  free  negro  attending  the  meeting. 

In  the  city  of  Savannah,  any  person  who  teaches  a  free  negro 
to  read  or  write,  incurs  a  penalty  of  thirty  dollars.  Of  course,  a 
father  may  not  instruct  his  own  children. 

In  Maryland,  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  may  order  a  free  negro's 
ears  to  be  cut  off  for  striking  a  white  man.  In  Kentucky,  for 
the  same  offence,  lie  is  to  receive  thirty  lashes,  "  well  laid  on." 
The  law  of  Louisiana  declares,  "  Free  people  of  color  ought 
never  to  insult  or  strike  white  people,  nor  presume  to  conceive 
themselves  equal  to  the  whites  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  they  ought 
to  yield  to  them  on  every  occasion,  and  never  speak  or  answer 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  27 

them  but  with  respect,  under  the  penalty  of  imprisonment, 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  case." 

The  corporation  of  Georgetown,  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
passed  an  ordinance,  making  it  penal  for  any  free  negro  to 
receive  from  the  post-office,  have  in  his  possession,  or  circulate, 
any  publication  or  writing  whatsoever  of  a  seditious  character. 

In  North  Carolina,  the  law  prohibits  a  free  colored  man, 
whatever  may  be  his  attainments  or  ecclesiastical  authority,  to 
preach  the  gospel. 

In  Georgia,  a  white  man  is  liable  to  a  fine  of  jive  hundred 
dollars  for  teaching  a  free  negro  to  read  or  write.  If  one  free 
negro  teach  another,  he  is  to  be  fined  and  ivhipped  at  the  dis 
cretion  of  the  court !  Should  a  free  negro  presume  to  preach 
to,  or  exhort  his  companions,  he  may  be  seized  without  warrant, 
and  whipped  thirty-nine  lashes,  and  the  same  number  of  lashes 
may  be  applied  to  each  one  of  his  congregation. 

In  Virginia,  should  free  negroes  or  their  children  assemble 
at  a  school  to  learn  reading  and  writing,  any  Justice  of  the 
Peace  may  dismiss  the  school  with  twenty  stripes  on  the  back  of 
each  pupil. 

In  some  States,  free  negroes  may  not  assemble  together  for 
any  purpose,  to  a  greater  number  than  seven.  In  North  Caro 
lina,  free  negroes  may  not  trade,  buy,  or  sell,  out  of  the  cities  or 
towns  in  which  they  reside,  under  the  penalty  of  forfeiting  their 
goods,  and  receiving,  in  lieu  thereof,  thirty-nine  lashes. 

The  laws  of  Ohio  against  the  free  blacks  are  peculiarly  de 
testable,  because  not  originating  from  the  fears  and  prejudices 
of  slave-holders.  Not  only  are  the  blacks  excluded  in  that 
State  from  the  benefit  of  public  schools,  but  with  a  refinement  of 
cruelty  unparalleled,  they  are  doomed  to  idleness  and  poverty, 
by  a  law  which  renders  a  white  man  who  employs  a  colored  one 
to  labor  for  him  one  hour,  liable  for  his  support  through  life ! 

By  a  late  law  of  Maryland,  a  free  negro  coming  into  the 
State  is  liable  to  a  fine  of  fifty  dollars  for  every  week  he  re 
mains  in  it.  If  he  cannot  pay  the  fine,  he  is  SOLD. 

In  Louisiana,  the  penalty  for  instructing  a  free  black  in  a 
Sunday  School,  is,  for  the  first  offence,  five  hundred  dollars ;  for 
the  second  offence,  DEATH  ! 


28  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Such,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  is  the  situation  of  three 
hundred  thousand  of  our  fellow-citizens  ;  and  the  only  comfort, 
the  only  consolation,  the  only  mitigation  of  their  sufferings, 
which  a  Society,  said  to  be  "  full  of  benevolence  and  the  hallowed 
impulses  of  Heaven's  own  mercy,"  proposes,  or  even  wishes  for 
them,  is  their  transportation  to  Africa ! 

Is  this  a  harsh  assertion  ?  Let  us  attend  to  the  proofs  that 
THE  SOCIETY  DISCOURAGES  ALL  ATTEMPTS  TO  IMPROVE  THE 
CONDITION  OF  THE  FREE  BLACKS. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  managers  of  the  American 
Colonization  Society  officially  declare,  that,  in  their  opinion,  no 
human  power  can  remove  the  causes  which  prevent  the  im 
provement  and  elevation  of  the  free  negroes  to  any  considerable 
extent  in  this  country;  and  that  the  New  York  Society,  in 
addressing  the  Legislature,  expresses  their  desire,  that  the  pro 
visions  in  the  constitution  and  statute  book  of  that  State,  relative 
to  the  blacks,  may  "  stand  in  all  their  rigor"  The  provision  in 
the  constitution  here  alluded  to,  is  that  recent  one,  which,  by 
requiring  a  freehold  qualification,  virtually  deprived  the  blacks 
of  the  elective  franchise,  which  the  fathers  of  the  Revolution  had 
given  them.  In  the  Convention  by  which  the  new  constitution 
was  formed,  many  of  the  most  distinguished  citizens  and  able 
lawyers,  including  Rufus  King  and  Chancellor  Kent,  had  pro 
tested,  against  this  proscription  as  unjust  and  anti-republican ; 
but  the  Colonization  Society  declare  to  the  Legislature,  without 
»  whose  consent  this  provision  cannot  be  changed,  that  they  wish  it 
to  stand  in  all  its  rigor.  Not  contented  with  giving  their  sanc 
tion  to  past  acts  of  injustice,  the  Society  use  their  influence  with  the 
Legislature  to  prevent  its  benevolent  operation  in  future.  Their 
Memorial  proceeds  :  —  "  Persuaded  that  their  condition  here  is 
not  susceptible  of  a  radical  and  permanent  improvement,  we 
would  deprecate  any  legislation  that  should  encourage  the  vain 
and  injurious  hope  of  it." 

The  Connecticut  Colonization  Society,  in  its  address  already 
quoted,  denies  that  even  "  religion  itself"  can  subdue  the  preju 
dices  existing  against  these  people.  The  same  address  author 
itatively  decides,  that  the  free  blacks  "  constitute  a  class  by 
themselves,  a  class  out  of  which  no  individual  can  be  elevated" 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  29 

The  Kentucky  State  Colonization  Society,  in  its  official 
address,  says  : 

"  It  is  against  this  increase  of  colored  persons,  who  take  but  a  nom 
inal  freedom,  and  cannot  rise  from  their  degraded  condition,  that  this 
Society  attempts  to  provide."  Afr.  Rep.,  VI,  82. 

"  The  people  of  color  must,  in  this  country,  remain  for  ages,  probably 
forever,  a  separate  and  distinct  caste,  weighed  down  by  causes  power 
ful,  universal,  invincible,  which  neither  legislation  NOR  CHRISTIANITY 
can  remove."  Afr.  Rep.,  Edit.  Art.,  VII,  196. 

"  We  have  endeavored,  but  in  vain,  to  restore  them  (the  free 
negroes)  either  to  self-respect,  or  to  the  respect  of  others.  It  is  not 
our  fault  that  we  have  failed.  It  is  not  theirs.  It  has  resulted  from  a 
cause  over  which  neither  we  nor  they  can  ever  have  control."  Speech 
of  Rev.  Dr.  Nott  before  N.  York  Col.  Soc. 

This  last  extract  claims  attention  from  the  extraordinary 
assertions  which  it  contains,  and  from  the  high  character  of  the 
author.  No  explanations  are  given  of  the  vain  endeavors  which 
have  been  made  to  restore  the  blacks  either  to  self-respect,  or 
to  the  respect  of  others.  "When,  where,  by  whom,  and  how 
were  these  efforts  made  ?  Dr.  Nott  is  addressing  the  State 
Society,  and  speaks  in  the  plural  number.  We  confess  we  see 
nothing  like  sucli  efforts  in  the  Memorial  of  that  Society  to  the 
Legislature.  It  is  moreover  to  be  recollected,  that  the  American 
Society,  in  its  address  to  its  auxiliaries,  warns  them  against  such 
efforts. 

"  The  moral,  intellectual,  and  political  improvement  of  people  of 
color  within  the  United  States,  are  objects  foreign  to  the  powers  of  this 
Society."  Address  of  the  Am.  CoL  Soc.  to  its  auxiliaries.  Afr.  Rep., 
VII,  291. 

Let  us  see  also  what  two  religious  colonization  papers  say  on 
this  subject. 

"  If  iliefree  people  of  color  were  generally  taught  to  read,  it  might 
be  an  inducement  to  them  to  remain  in  this  country ;  we  would  offer 
them  no  such  inducements."  Southern  Religious  Telegraph,  Febru 
ary,  19,  1831. 

"  It  must  appear  evident  to  all,  that  every  endeavor  to  divert  the 
attention  of  the  community,  or  even  a  portion  of  the  means  which  the 
present  crisis  so  imperatively  calls  for,  from  the  Colonization  Society,  to 
measures  calculated  to  bind  the  colored  population  to  this  country,  and 
seeking  to  raise  them  to  a  level  with  the  whites,  whether  by  founding 
colleges,  or  in  any  other  way,  tends  directly  in  the  proportion  that  it 
succeeds,  to  counteract  and  thwart  the  whole  plan  of  colonization."  New 
Haven  Religious  Intelligencer,  July,  1831. 


30  JAY'S  WORKS. 

We  perceive  from  these  extracts,  that  the  improvement  of  the 
free  blacks  is  represented  by  colonizationists  as  impossible,  and 
of  course  it  is  folly  to  attempt  what  is  impracticable.  The  very 
attempt,  moreover,  is  calculated  to  counteract  and  thwart  the 
whole  plan  of  colonization,  as  far  as  it  succeeds.  But  this  is 
not  all.  Some  might  think  the  obligations  of  Christianity 
required  us  to  instruct  the  ignorant,  and  to  succor  the  oppressed. 
To  remove  this  prejudice,  we  are  assured  that  even  Christianity 
cannot  help  the  negro  in  America  !  When  before,  has  the  power 
of  our  blessed  religion  in  changing  the  heart,  subduing  evil 
affections,  and  removing  unholy  prejudices,  been  questioned  by 
professing  Christians  ? 

The  influence  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  has  led  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  to  offer  themselves  as  willing  victims  at  the 
stake  or  in  the  amphitheatre  —  it  has  prostrated  the  temples,  the 
altars,  and  the  gods  of  paganism  —  it  has  triumphed  over 
ancient  and  endeared  superstition's  —  it  has  delivered  the  Hindoo 
from  the  fetters  of  caste,  and  tamed  the  North  American  savage ; 
and  yet  according  to  colonizationists,  it  is  utterly  impotent, 
when  brought  into  collision  with  the  prejudices  of  American 
Christians,  towards  an  unhappy  portion  of  their  fellow  coun 
trymen  ! 

And  what  unsuccessful  experiments  justify  this  depreciation 
of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  When  have  those  who  thus 
speak  of  the  inefficacy  of  religion  in  subduing  these  sinful  pre 
judices,  tried  its  power  ?  When  have  colonizationists  warned 
Christians  that  the  negro  is  created  by  the  same  Almighty 
Being,  descended  from  the  same  parent,  redeemed  by  the  same 
Saviour,  and  made  an  heir  of  the  same  immortality  with  them 
selves  ?  When  have  we  been  reminded  by  them  of  that  heart- 
searching  declaration  which  will  be  uttered  by  the  Judge  at  the 
last  day,  "  inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  to  one  of  the  least  of  these 
my  brethren,  ye  did  it  not  to  me  ?  " 

Admitting  that  the  blacks  who  have  gone  to  Africa  have 
impi'oved  their  condition,  what  is  the  total  amount  of  good  thus 
effected?  Of  the  319,467  free  negroes  in  the  United  States,  2,122 
have  in  the  last  eighteen  years  been  sent  to  Liberia.  Supposing 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  31 

them  to  be  happy  in  their  new  abode,  at  what  a  deplorable  sac 
rifice  of  the  happiness  of  their  brethren  here,  has  their  own 
been  purchased  !  To  raise  funds  for  their  transportation,  our 
churches  and  halls,  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  have  rung 
with  reproaches  and  accusations  against  the  free  people  of  color. 
Orators,  preachers,  legislators,  have  denounced  them  as  nuisances, 
vile  excrescences  on  the  body  politic  —  ignorant,  depraved, 
debased,  and  utterly  incapable  of  improvement  and  elevation. 
The  laws  oppressing  them  have  been  vindicated,  and  all  legis 
lation  deprecated,  that  would  even  encourage  the  hope  of  their 
perm anent  improvement. 

And  is  it  possible  that  this  general  and  united  effort  to  prevent 
these  people  from  rising,  and  to  render  them  odious  to  the  com 
munity,  should  have  no  practical  effect  on  public  opinion  and 
conduct  ?  Already  do  we  hear  their  forcible  expulsion  from  the 
country,  urged  in  petitions,  and  advocated  in  our  State  Legis 
latures.  He  must  be  wilfully  blind  to  passing  events,  who  does 
not  perceive  that  the  persecution  of  these  people  is  increasing 
in  extent  and  malignity.  La  Fayette  remarked  in  his  last  visit 
with  astonishment,  the  aggravation  of  the  prejudices  against  the 
blacks,  and  stated  that  in  the  revolutionary  Avar,  the  black  and 
white  soldiers  messed  together  without  hesitation. 

In  no  instance,  perhaps,  has  colonization  had  so  direct  and 
obvious  an  influence  in  augmenting  the  injuries  and  oppression 
of  this  unhappy  race,  as  in  Connecticut.  To  that  State  have 
good  men  long  rejoiced  to  look  as  to  a  bright  pattern  of  a 
Christian  republic.  There  they  beheld  political  liberty  in  its 
highest  perfection,  and  so  divested,  by  the  influence  of  religion, 
of  those  irregularities  of  conduct  which  too  often  attend  it,  that 
the  State  was  proverbially  distinguished  as  "  the  land  of  steady 
habits."  In  no  part  of  the  world  were  the  blessings  of  education 
more  highly  valued,  or  more  generally  diffused.  The  Coloniza 
tion  Society  had  there  taken  a  strong  hold  on  the  affections  of 
the  people,  and  had  found  in  Connecticut  divines  and  politicians, 
and  in  the  religious  periodicals  of  New  Haven,  zealous  and  able 
champions. 

The  city  of  New  Haven  had  been  long,  alike  distinguished 


32  JAY'S  WORKS. 

for  its  literary  institutions,  and  for  the  sobriety  and  piety  of  its 
inhabitants.  It  is  not,  therefore,  surprising  that  some  of  the 
most  intelligent  and  influential  of  our  colored  citizens  were  led 
to  believe  that  New  Haven  would  be  a  proper  site  for  a  school 
for  their  children,'  and  that  such  a  school  would  there  find  gen 
erous  patrons.  In  1831,  a  convention  was  held  in  Philadelphia, 
of  delegates  from  the  free  colored  people  in  other  States,  and  it 
was  determined  that  an  effort  should  be  made  to  raise  funds  for 
"  a  collegiate  school,  on  the  manual  labor  system."  A  committee 
was  appointed  to  carry  the  plan  into  execution.  This  committee 
published  in  Philadelphia,  "  An  appeal  to  the  benevolent,"  in 
which  they  stated  the  necessity  of  the  proposed  school,  on 
account  of  the  difficulty  which  colored  children  experienced  in 
gaining  admission  into  ordinary  seminaries,  or  mechanical  estab 
lishments  ;  and  that  the  proposed  seminary  would  be  located  at 
New  Haven,  and  "  established  on  the  self-supporting  system,  so 
that  the  student  may  cultivate  habits  of  industry,  and  obtain  a 
useful  mechanical  or  agricultural  profession,  while  pursuing 
classical  studies." 

Bishops  White  and  Onderdonk,  and  the  Rev.  Doctors  Mc- 
Auley,  Bedell,  and  Ely,  of  Philadelphia,  gave  the  committee 
written  certificates  of  their  approbation  of  the  education  of 
colored  youth.  Little,  alas,  did  these  gentlemen  anticipate  the 
feeling  this  effort  would  excite  among  the  Christians  of  New 
Haven.  No  sooner  had  intelligence  of  the  intended  school 
reached  that  city,  than  the  mayor  summoned  a  town  meeting, 
"  to  take  into  consideration  a  scheme,  said  to  be  in  progress,  for 
the  establishment  in  this  city  of  a  college  for  the  education  of 
colored  youth."  The  meeting  was  held  on  the  8th  of  September, 
1831,  and  it  was  "  Resolved  by  the  Mayor,  Aldermen,  Common 
Council,  and  free  men  of  the  city  of  New  Haven,  in  city  meeting 
assembled,  that  we  will  resist  the  establishment  of  the  proposed 
college  in  this  place  by  every  lawful  means."  This  resolution 
was  preceded  by  a  preamble,  stating  that  "  in  connection  with 
this  establishment,  the  immediate  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
United  States  is  not  only  recommended  and  encouraged  by  the 
advocates  of  the  proposed  college,  but  demanded  as  a  right," 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  33 

and  "  that  the  propagation  of  sentiments,  favorable  to  the  imme 
diate  emancipation  of  slaves,  in  disregard  of  the  civil  institutions 
of  the  States  to  which  they  belong,  and  as  auxiliary  thereto,  the 
contemporaneous  founding  of  colleges  for  educating  colored  peo 
ple,  is  an  unwarrantable  and  dangerous  interference  with  the 
internal  concerns  of  other  States,  and  ought  to  be  discouraged." 

That  the  education  of  colored  citizens  in  Connecticut  is  an 
unwarrantable  interference  with  the  internal  concerns  of  other 
States,  and  that  the  friends  of  the  proposed  college  ever  recom 
mended  the  immediate  emancipation  of  slaves  in  disregard  of  the 
civil  institutions  of  the  States  to  which  they  belong,  are  asser 
tions  which  the  Mayor,  Aldermen,  Common  Council,  and  free 
men  of  the  city  of  New  Haven  prudently  permitted  to  rest  on 
their  own  authority,  without  adducing  any  other  evidence  of 
their  truth. 

But  surely,  the  pious  and  excellent  colonizationists  of  New 
Haven,  who  are  so  anxious  to  civilize  the  natives  of  Africa, 
must  have  been  indignant  at  this  attempt  to  keep  Americans  in 
ignorance.  Alas,  in  that  crowded  assembly,  there  was  but  one 
voice  raised  against  its  unholy  resolution,  and  that  was  the  voice 
of  a  decided  anti-colonizatiomst,  the  Rev.  S.  S.  Jocelyn,  while 
one  of  the  public  advocates  of  the  resolution  was  the  Secretary 
of  the  New  Haven  Committee  of  Correspondence  of  the  Amer 
ican  Colonization  Society. 

The  Colonization  party  in  New  Haven  could  have  prevented 
this  high-handed  oppression,  but  their  influence  was  exerted  not 
for,  but  against  the  improvement  and  elevation  of  their  colored' 
brethren. 

Unhappily  for  the  character  of  Connecticut,  for  that  of  our 
common  country,  and  even  of  Christianity  itself,  the  proceedings 
in  New  Haven  were  but  the  commencement  of  a  series  of  out 
rages  on  justice,  humanity,  and  the  rights  of  freemen. 

There  are  occasions  on  which  it  is  treason  to  truth  and  honor, 
if  not  to  religion,  to  suppress   our  indignation ;  and  while  we 
shall  scrupulously  adhere  to  truth  in  relating  the  measures  pur 
sued  in  Connecticut,  to  prevent  the  education  of  a  certain  class 
4 


34 

of  colored  persons,  we  shall  not  shrink  from  a  free  expression  of 
our  opinions  of  those  measures,  and  of  their  authors. 

Miss  Crandall,  a  communicant  in  the  Baptist  church,  and,  as 
we  believe,  a  lady  of  irreproachable  character,  had  for  some 
time  been  at  the  head  of  a  female  boarding  school,  in  the  town 
of  Canterbury,  Connecticut,  when  in  the  autumn  of  1832,  a 
pious  colored  female  applied  to  her  for  admission  into  her  school, 
stating  that  she  wanted  "  to  get  a  little  more  learning  —  enough, 
if  possible,  to  teach  colored  children."  After  some  hesitation, 
Miss  Crandall  consented  to  admit  her,  but  was  soon  informed 
that  this  intruder  must  be  dismissed,  or  that  the  shool  would  be 
greatly  injured.  This  threat  turned  her  attention  to  the  cruel 
prejudices  and  disadvantages  under  which  the  blacks  are  suffer 
ing,  and  she  resolved  to  open  a  shool  exclusively  for  colored  girls. 
It  has  been  thought  expedient  to  doubt  the  philanthropy  of  this 
resolution,  and  to  attribute  it  to  pecuniary  motives.  Whatever 
may  have  been  her  motives,  and  pecuniary  ones  would  not  have 
been  unlawful,  she  had  a  perfect  right  to  open  a  school  for  pupils 
of  any  color  whatever ;  and  had  not  the  moral  sense  of  the  com 
munity  been  perverted,  this  attempt  to  instruct  the  poor,  the 
friendless,  and  the  ignorant,  would  have  met  with  applause 
instead  of  contumely.  She  discontinued  her  school,  and  in  Feb 
ruary,  1833,  gave  public  notice  of  her  intention  to  open  one  for 
colored  girls.  This  notice  excited  prodigious  commotion  in  the 
town  of  Canterbury.  That  Uack  girls  should  presume  to  learn 
reading,  and  writing,  and  music,  and  geography,  was  past  all 
bearing.  Committee  after  committee  waited  on  Miss  Crandall, 
to  remonstrate  against  the  intended  school,  but  to  no  purpose. 
More  efficient  means  were  found  necessary  to  avert  the  impend 
ing  calamity,  and  a  legal  town  meeting  was  summoned  to  con 
sider  the  awful  crisis.  At  this  meeting  resolutions  were  passed, 
expressing  the  strongest  disapprobation  of  the  proposed  school, 
and  the  preamble  declared  that  "  the  obvious  tendency  of  this 
school  would  be  to  collect  within  the  town  of  Canterbury,  large 
numbers  of  persons  from  other  States,  whose  characters  and 
habits  might  be  various  and  unknown  to  us,  thereby  rendering 
insecure  the  persons,  property,  and  reputations  of  our  citizens." 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  35 

Had  this  extreme  nervous  apprehension  of  danger  been  excited 
in  the  good  people  of  Canterbury  by  the  introduction  of  some 
hundreds  of  Irish  laborers  into  their  village  to  construct  a  rail 
road  or  canal,  we  should  still  have  thought  their  temperament 
very  peculiar ;  but  when  we  find  them  thus  affecting  to  tremble, 
not  merely  for  their  property,  but  for  their  persons  and  reputa 
tions,  at  the  approach  of  fifteen  or  twenty  "  young  ladies  and 
little  misses  of  color,"  we  confess  we  are  astonished  that  the 
collected  wisdom  of  these  people  was  not  able  to  frame  an  argu 
ment  against  the  school,  less  disgraceful  to  themselves. 

Andrew  T.  Judson,  Esq.,  acted  as  clerk  to  this  meeting,  and 
supported  the  resolutions  in  a  speech,  in  which  he  is  reported  to 
have  said,  "that  should  the  school  go  into  operation,  their  sons 
and  daughters  would  be  forever  ruined,  and  property  no  longer 
safe."  For  his  part,  he  was  not  willing,  for  the  honor  and  wel 
fare  of  the  town,  that  even  one  corner  of  it  should  be  appropri 
ated  to  such  a  purpose.  After  the  example  which  New  Haven 
had  set,  he  continued,  "  shall  it  be  said  that  we  cannot,  that  we 
dare  not  resist  ? "  Mr.  Judson  further  stated,  that  they  had 
"  A  LAW  which  should  prevent  that  school  from  going  into  oper 
ation." 

The  resolutions  of  the  town  meeting,  as  became  so  grave  a 
matter,  were  communicated  to  Miss  Crandall  by  the  "  civil 
authority  and  selectmen,"  but  strange  as  it  may  seem,  that  lady 
stood  less  in  dread  of  them,  than  they  did  of  the  "  young  ladies 
of  color,"  for  she  refused  to  retreat  from  the  ground  she  had 
taken. 

The  example  of  New  Haven,  we  have  seen,  was  held  up  to 
the  people  of  Canterbury  by  Mr.  Judson,  for  their  encourage 
ment,  and  as  an  earnest  of  their  ultimate  success.  Still  the 
cases  were  not  exactly  similar.  "  The  civil  authority  and  select 
men  "  of  Canterbury,  had  not  the  imposing  array  of  power  and 
influence  displayed  by  "  the  Mayor,  Aldermen,  Common  Council, 
and  free  men  of  the  city  of  New  Haven."  The  latter,  by  the 
mere  expression  of  their  opinion,  had  prevented  the  establish 
ment  of  a  college  for  colored  youth ;  the  former  were  set  at 
naught  by  an  unprotected  female.  Some  means  more  efficacious 


36  JAY'S  WORKS. 

than  the  fulminations  of  a  town  meeting  were,  therefore,  next  to 
be  tried.  Mr.  Judson  had  indeed  a  certain  LAW  in  reserve,  but 
it  was  necessary  that  certain  influences  should  be  previously 
brought  into  action,  before  a  civilized  and  Christian  people  could 
be  induced  to  tolerate  the  application  of  that  law.  Colonization, 
as  already  remarked,  had  taken  a  deep  hold  on  the  affections  of 
the  people  of  Connecticut.  Their  most  eminent  men  had 
enrolled  themselves  in  the  ranks  of  the  Society.  To  this  pow 
erful  association  recourse  was  now  had.  On  the  22d  of  March, 
1833,  the  "civil  authority  and  selectmen"  of  Canterbury  made 
their  "APPEAL  TO  THE  AMERICAN  COLONIZATION  SOCIETY." 
In  this  most  extraordinary  paper,  they  expatiate  on  the  benevo 
lence  of  the  Society  towards  the  colored  population,  and  deplore 
the  opposition  it  encounters  from  certain  individuals  who  have 
formed  "  the  Anti-Slavery  Society."  These  men,  they  assert, 
wish  to  admit  the  blacks  "  into  the  bosom  of  our  society,"  and 
would  "justify  intermarriages  with  the  wrhite  people."  They 
then  recite  their  own  grievances,  detail  the  proceedings  of  their 
town  meeting,  dwell  on  Miss  Crandall's  pertinacity  in  pursuing 
her  own  plans,  express  their  horror  of  abolition  principles,  and 
state  that  Mr.  Garrison  had  said  that  the  excitement  in  Canter 
bury  "  is  one  of  the  genuine  flowers  of  the  colonization  garden  ; " 
and  they  add,  "  Be  it  so ;  wre  APPEAL  to  the  American  Coloniza 
tion  Society,  to  which  our  statement  is  addressed  —  we  appeal  to 
every  philanthropist,  and  to  every  Christian ! "  Mr.  Judson's 
name  appears  at  the  head  of  the  signers  to  the  appeal. 

Had  Miss  Crandall  appealed  to  the  Society  in  behalf  of  her 
school,  she  would  probably,  and  very  properly,  have  been  told 
that  the  subject  of  her  school  was  not  embraced  in  the  constitu 
tional  objects  of  the  Society  ;  and  may  we  not  ask,  if  the  Society 
has  no  right  to  encourage,  has  it  any  right  to  discourage  the 
establishment  of  schools  of  any  description  whatever  ?  In  the 
singleness  of  its  object  it  has  often  been  compared  to  the  Bible 
Society ;  what  would  have  been  thought  of  such  an  appeal  to  the 
American  Bible  Society  ?  How  the  appeal  was  answered  we 
shall  presently  see. 

Having  thus  identified  their  cause  with  that  of  the  Coloniza- 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  37 

tion  Society,  and  secured  the  sympathy  of  its  numerous  and 
powerful  friends  in  Connecticut,  Mr.  Judson  and  his  associates 
proceeded  to  further  operations.  Foiled  in  their  attempts  to 
persuade  or  intimidate,  they  now  resolved  on  coercion.  On  the 
1st  of  April,  another  town  meeting  was  convened,  at  which  it 
was  "  Voted  that  a  petition  in  behalf  of  the  town  of  Canterbury, 
to  the  next  General  Assembly,  be  drawn  up,  in  suitable  lan 
guage,  deprecating  the  evil  consequences  of  bringing  from  other 
towns  and  other  States  people  of  color  for  any  purpose,  and  more 
especially  for  the  purpose  of  disseminating  the  principles  and 
doctrines  opposed  to  THE  BENEVOLENT  COLONIZATION  SYSTEM, 
praying  said  Assembly  to  pass  and  enact  such  laws  as  in  their 
wisdom  will  prevent  the  evil"  Mr.  Judson,  with  others,  was 
apppointed  a  committee  to  prepare  the  petition,  and  to  request 
other  towns  to  forward  similar  petitions.  The  malignity  of  this 
vote  is  equalled  only  by  its  absurdity.  The  desired  law  is  to 
prevent  the  evil  of  blacks  passing  not  only  from  other  States, 
but  other  towns.  Every  black  citizen  of  Connecticut  is  to  be 
imprisoned  in  the  town  in  which  the  law  happens  to  find  him, 
and  he  may  not  travel  into  the  adjoining  town  for  "  any  pur 
pose,"  and  all  this  especially  to  prevent  interference  with  "  the 
benevolent  colonization  system." 

Did  the  Colonization  Society  protest  against  such  an  outrage 
being  committed  in  its  behalf?  did  it  indignantly  disclaim  all 
connection,  all  sympathy  with  men  who  in  its  name  were  striv 
ing  to  perpetuate  such  abominable  tyranny  ?  It  is  not  known, 
that  in  any  way  whatever,  it  has  ever  expressed  its  disapproba 
tion  of  these  proceedings.  Certain  it  is,  that  the  effect  of  the 
"  appeal,"  and  of  this  vote,  was  not  such  as  to  induce  the  Can 
terbury  gentlemen  to  falter  in  their  career ;  we  have  seen  that 
Mr.  Judson  had  a  LAW,  which  was  to  arrest  the  school.  When 
the  "  appeal "  had  been  before  the  public  just  one  month,  the 
selectmen  resolved  to  avail  themselves  of  this  law. 

Among  the  pupils  of  Miss  Crandall,  was  a  colored  girl  about 

seventeen  years  of  age,  who  had  come  from  Rhode  Island  to 

enj°y  the  advantages  of  the  school.     The  pursuit  of  knowledge 

under  discouraging  difficulties  has  rarely  failed  to  excite  ap- 

4* 


38  JAY'S  WORKS. 

plause ;  and  the  virtuous  struggles  of  the  poor  and  obscure  to 
improve  and  elevate  themselves,  claim  the  sympathy  of  Chris 
tian  benevolence.  In  the  present  instance  we  behold  a  youthful 
female,  of  a  despised  and  depressed  race,  attempting  to  emerge 
from  the  ignorance  and  degradation  into  which  she  had  been  cast 
by  birth  ;  and  abandoning  her  home  and  friends,  and  travelling 
to  another  State,  applying  for  instruction  to  the  only  seminary 
in  the  whole  country  open  to  receive  her.  And  now  let  us  see 
what  sympathy  this  poor  and  defenceless,  but  innocent  and 
praiseworthy  girl,  experienced  from  the  admirers  of  "  the  benev 
olent  colonization  system."  On  the  day  after  her  arrival,  she 
was  ordered  by  the  selectmen  to  leave  the  town.  This  order, 
as  illegal  as  it  was  inhumane,  was  disregarded ;  and  on  the  22d 
of  April,  Mr.  Judson  and  his  fellow  functionaries  instituted,  on 
behalf  of  the  town,  a  suit  against  her  under  an  old  vagrant  act 
of  Connecticut,  and  a  writ  was  issued  to  the  sheriff,  to  require 
her  appearance  before  a  Justice  of  the  Peace.  The  writ  recited, 
that  according  to  the  statute,  she  had  forfeited  to  the  town  $1.62 
for  each  day  she  had  remained  in  it,  since  she  was  ordered  to 
depart ;  and  that  in  default  of  payment,  she  was  TO  BE  WHIPPED 

ON    THE    NAKED    BODY    NOT    EXCEEDING    TEN    STRIPES,    unless 

she  departed  within  ten  days  after  conviction.  The  barbarous 
and  obsolete  law  under  which  this  suit  was  brought,  was  intended 
to  protect  towns  from  the  intrusion  of  paupers  who  might  become 
chargeable.  The  friends  of  the  school  had  offered  to  give  the 
selectmen  bonds  to  any  amount,  to  secure  the  town  from  all  cost 
on  account  of  the  pupils ;  and  of  course  this  suit  was  a  wicked 
perversion  of  the  law,  and  the  plaintiffs  ought  to  have  been 
indicted  fora  malicious  prosecution  under  color  of  office.  With 
equal  propriety  might  the  civil  authority  of  New  Haven  warn  a 
student  in  Yale  College,  from  New  York,  to  leave  the  city,  and 
on  his  refusal,  order  him  to  be  whipped  on  the  naked  body  as  a 
vagrant  pauper. 

About  the  time  of  the  return  of  this  writ,  the  Legislature  of 
Connecticut  assembled,  and  so  successfully  had  the  Canterbury 
persecution  been  identified  with  colonization,  that  a  law  was 
passed  to  suppress  the  school,  and  all  others  of  a  similar  char- 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  39 

acter.  Its  preamble  declared  that  "  attempts  have  been  made 
to  establish  literary  institutions  in  this  State,  for  the  instruction 
of  colored  persons  belonging  to  other  States  and  countries,  which 
would  tend  to  the  great  increase  of  the  colored  population  of  this 
State,  and  thereby  to  the  injury  of  the  people."  The  act 
provides,  that  every  person  who  shall  set  up,  or  establish  any 
school,  academy,  or  literary  institution,  for  the  instruction  or 
education  of  colored  persons  who  are  not  inhabitants  of  Connec 
ticut  ;  or  who  shall  teach  in  such  school,  or  who  shall  board  any 
colored  pupil  of  such  school,  not  an  inhabitant  of  the  State,  shall 
forfeit  one  hundred  dollars  for  the  first  offence,  two  hundred 
dollars  for  the  second,  and  so  on,  doubling  for  each  succeeding 
offence,  unless  the  consent  of  the  civil  authority  and  selectmen 
of  the  town,  be  previously  obtained. 

Mr.  Judson's  late  attempt  to  enforce  the  whipping  law,  re 
minded  the  Legislature  of  the  propriety  of  abolishing  that  relic 
of  barbarism,  and  it  was  accordingly  repealed,  and  thus  were  the 
backs  of  Miss  Crandall's  pupils  saved  from  the  threatened 
laceration. 

It  is  painful  and  mortifying  to  reflect  on  the  law  obtained  by 
Mr.  Judson  and  his  associates,  for  the  suppression  of  the  school, 
and  which  has  very  generally  received  the  title  of  "  the  Connec 
ticut  Black  Act."  It  is  an  act  alien  to  the  habits,  the  character, 
the  religion  of  Connecticut.  It  is  an  act  which  neither  policy 
nor  duty  can  vindicate.  It  is  an  act  which  will  afford  its  authors 
no  consolation  in  the  prospect  of  their  final  account,  and  which 
their  children  will  blush  to  remember. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  a  Connecticut  Legislature,  about  to 
pass  a  law  for  the  discouragement  of  learning,  should  wish  for 
an  excuse  ;  nor  that  they  should  find  themselves  constrained  to 
invent  one.  Miss  Crandall  had  fifteen  or  twenty  girls  in  her 
school,  and  it  does  not  appear  that  the  Legislature  had  ascer 
tained  how  many  of  them  had  come  from  other  States,  nor  that 
they  had  inquired  into  the  amount  of  injury  sustained  by  the 
citizens  of  Canterbury,  in  their  "  persons,  property,  and  reputa 
tions,"  from  these  "  misses  of  color ; "  and  yet  they  unhesita 
tingly  assert,  that  the  "  increase  "  of  the  colored  population  in 


40 

the  State,  occasioned  by  such  schools,  would  be  "  great ; "  and 
that  such  increase  would  tend  to  the  "  injury  of  the  people." 
To  test  the  truth  of  these  two  assertions,  let  it  be  recollected, 
first,  that  no  evidence  existed  that  any  other  seminary  for 
blacks  was  at  this  time  contemplated  in  Connecticut ;  and  that 
the  free  colored  people  are,  as  a  class,  sunk  in  abject  poverty, 
and  that  very  few  of  them  have  the  means  of  sending  their 
children  from  other  States  into  Connecticut,  and  there  maintain 
ing  them  at  school ;  and,  secondly,  that  no  portion  of  this  popu 
lation  would  be  so  little  likely  to  occasion  "injury  to  the 
people,"  as  those  who  were  placed  at  a  religious  school,  and 
instructed  in  morals  and  literature.  As  to  the  sincerity  of  the 
apprehensions  felt  by  the  Legislature,  let  it  be  further  recol 
lected,  that  the  law  is  intended  to  prevent  the  ingress  of  such 
blacks  only,  as  might  come  for  the  honorable  and  virtuous  pur 
pose  of  education,  while  not  the  slightest  impediment  is  opposed 
to  the  introduction  of  cooks,  waiters,  scullions,  shoeblacks,  &c., 
in  any  number.  The  lest  are  excluded,  the  worst  freely  ad 
mitted. 

"We  have  seen  that  colonizationists  regard  all  attempts  to 
elevate  the  free  blacks,  as  an  interference  with  their  system, 
and  the  Black  Act  is  admirably  calculated  to  prevent  such 
attempts.  Connecticut  closes  her  schools  to  blacks  from  New 
York  and  elsewhere.  If  this  is  right,  —  and  what  State  more 
religious  than  Connecticut  ?  —  other  States  may  be  expected  to 
follow  her  example.  Hence  no  seminary,  in  any  one  State,  for 
the  instruction  of  the  blacks,  can  be  founded  by  their  joint 
contributions ;  from  the  academies,  boarding  schools,  and  col 
leges  of  the  whites,  they  are  already  excluded ;  of  course,  they 
are  —  doomed  to  perpetual  ignorance.  Let  each  State,  it  is  said, 
instruct  its  own  youth.  It  is  well  for  Yale  College  that  this 
doctrine  is  applied  only  to  black  aspirants  for  knowledge. 

In  1828,  an  African  Mission  School  was  established  at  Hart 
ford,  for  the  purpose  of  educating  colored  youth,  "  to  be  selected 
from  our  numerous  African  population,"  and,  of  course,  from 
other  States  besides  Connecticut.  It  was  under  the  patron 
age  of  the  Bishops  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  41 

United  States.  No  outcry  was  excited  against  this  school ;  no 
citizen  of  Hartford  trembled  for  his  property,  person,  or  repu 
tation.  Why  not  ?  Because  the  school  was  auxiliary  to  colo 
nization,  and  those  instructed  in  it  were  to  be  sent  out  of  the 
country. 

No  sooner  was  the  passage  of  the  Black  Act  known  in  Can 
terbury,  than  this  triumph  over  justice,  humanity,  and  constitu 
tional  liberty,  was  celebrated  by  a,  feu  de  joie,  and  the  ringing 
of  bells.  Nor  was  the  act  permitted  to  remain  a  dead  letter. 
Miss  Crandall  was  prosecuted  under  it,  and  being  unable  to 
procure  bail,  was  committed  to  PRISON.  The  next  day  bail  was 
obtained,  and  she  returned  to  her  school.  Well,  indeed,  might 
the  public  press,  with  some  memorable  exceptions,  execrate  the 
Black  Act ;  and  well,  indeed,  might  Mr.  Judson  feel  impatient, 
under  the  obloquy  that  was  falling  upon  him,  as  the  chief  in 
stigator  and  manager  of  the  prosecution.  "  A  friend  in  need, 
is  a  friend  indeed."  And  now  was  the  time  when  he  needed  and 
received  that  countenance,  for  which  he  had  appealed  to  the 
Colonization  Society.  It  was  not  probably  expected  that  the 
managers  of  the  parent  Society  would  officially  notice  the  appeal, 
but  a  mode  was  devised,  on  the  part  of  Connecticut  coloniza- 
tionists,  of  publicly  expressing  their  approbation  of  Mr.  Judson's 
conduct.  On  the  anniversary  of  the  declaration  that  "  all  men 
are  created  equal,"  and  a  few  days  after  Miss  Crandall's  impris 
onment,  the  Windham  County*  Colonization  Society  convened, 
and  appointed  Mr.  Judson  their  orator  and  agent,  thus  proclaim 
ing  that  HE  was  the  man  they  delighted  to  honor.  Another 
response  to  the  appeal  was  in  a  few  days  heard  from  New 
York.  The  chairman  of  the  executive  committee  of  the  New 
York  City  Colonization  Society,  is  the  editor  of  the  New  York 
Commercial  Advertiser,  and  its  columns  were  loaded  with  crim 
inations  of  Miss  Crandall,  and  vindications  of  the  Black  Act. 
"The  inhabitants  of  Canterbury"  were  declared  to  be  "as 
quiet,  peaceable,  humane,  and  inoffensive  people,  as  can  be 
named  in  the  United  States."  The  constitutionality  of  the 

*  The  County  in  Avhich  Canterbury  is  situated. 


42  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Black  Act  was  broadly  maintained,  and  it  was  averred  to  be  "  just 
such  a  law  in  its  spirit,  if  not  in  its  provisions,  as  we  are  in  the 
constant  practice  of  enforcing  in  this  city,  to  prevent  our  char 
itable  institutions  from  being  filled  to  overflowing  with  black 
paupers  from  the  South,  and  white  paupers  from  Europe."  Of 
the  gentleman  who  drafted  the  Black  Act,  the  public  were  as 
sured,  "  a  warmer  heart  than  his  throbs  in  few  bosoms,  and  the 
African  race  has  no  firmer  friend  than  him."* 

On  the  23d  of  August,  Miss  Crandall  was  brought  to  trial. 
The  crime  with  which  she  was  charged,  was  fully  proved.  One 
of  the  witnesses  testified  :  "  The  school  is  usually  opened  and 
closed  with  prayer ;  the  Scriptures  are  read  and  explained  in 
the  school  daily ;  portions  are  committed  to  memory  by  the 
pupils,  and  considered  part  of  their  education." 

The  orator  and  agent  of  the  Windham  Colonization  Society, 
opened  the  case  on  the  part  of  the  prosecution,  and  to  this  gen 
tleman,  it  is  believed,  belongs  the  distinction  of  having  been  the 
first  man  in  New  England  to  propound  publicly  the  doctrine, 
that  free  colored  persons  are  not  citizens.  This  doctrine  was 
essential  to  the  validity  of  the  Black  Act,  since  by  the  federal 
Constitution,  citizens  of  one  State  are  entitled  to  all  the  privi 
leges  of  citizenship  in  every  other  State ;  and  the  Act  prohib 
ited  colored  persons  from  other  States  from  going  to  school  in 
Connecticut,  a  prohibition  palpably  unconstitutional,  if  free 
blacks  are  citizens.  The  presiding  judge  submitted  the  cause 
to  the  jury  without  comment ;  and  some  of  them  having  scru 
ples  about  Mr.  Judson's  new  doctrine,  refused  to  agree  in  a  ver 
dict  of  guilty,  and  a  new  trial  was  consequently  ordered.  *  In 
the  ensuing  October,  Miss  Crandall  was  again  placed  at  the  bar, 
while  the  vice  president  of  the  New  Haven  Colonization  Soci 
ety,  Judge  Daggett,  took  his  seat  on  the  bench.  The  cause 
against  the  defendant  was  again  argued  by  the  Windham  Colo 
nization  orator  and  agent ;  and  Judge  Daggett,  warned  by  the 
result  of  the  preceding  trial,  of  the  necessity  of  enlightening  the 
consciences  of  the  jury,  delivered  an  elaborate  charge.  Rarely 

Commercial  Advertiser,  July  16  and  29,  1833. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  43 

has  any  judge  enjoyed  such  an  opportunity  of  defending  the 
poor  and  fatherless,  of  doing  justice  to  the  afflicted  and  needy, 
of  delivering  the  spoiled  out  of  the  hand  of  the  oppressor.  The 
merits  of  the  cause  turned  on  the  simple  question  whether  free 
blacks  are  citizens  or  not.  We  might  have  presumed  that  a 
judge,  aware  of  his  solemn  responsibility,  would  have  prepared 
himself  for  the  decision  of  this  momentous  question,  by  the 
most  patient  and  thorough  research.  On  the  opinion  he  might 
pronounce,  would  perhaps  rest  the  future  education,  comfort, 
freedom,  and  not  unlikely,  everlasting  happiness  of  multitudes 
of  his  fellow-men.  Under  such  circumstances,  the  public  had 
a  right  to  expect  that  he  would  resort  to  every  source  of 
information;  that  he  would  consult  the  opinions  of  eminent 
statesmen  and  jurists  ;  investigate  the  constitutional  history  of 
the  rights  of  these  people  ;  study  the  proceedings  of  Congress  in 
relation  to  them,  'and  bring  together  such  a  mass  of  facts,  such 
an  array  of  arguments,  as  would  prove  that  his  decision,  what 
ever  it  might  be,  was  the  result  of  conscientious  inquiry,  and 
that  the  bench  was  elevated  far  above  the  prejudices  and  pas 
sions,  which  had  brought  to  the  bar  an  innocent  and  benevolent 
female. 

The  judge,  in  his  charge,  expresses  himself  in  the  following 
words  :  *  "  Are  the  free  people  of  color  citizens  ?  I  answer, 
No."  The  grounds  on  which  this  answer  is  given,  appear  to  be 
the  following : 

1st.  "  They  are  not  so  styled  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  In  that  clause  of  the  Constitution  which  fixes  the  basis  of  rep 
resentation,  there  was  an  opportunity  to  have  called  them  citizens,  if 
they  were  so  considered.  But  that  makes  free  persons  (adding  three- 
fifths  of  all  other  persons)  the  basis  of  representation  and  taxation." 

The  words  of  the  Constitution  referred  to  by  the  Judge,  are, 
(Art.  1.  Sec.  3,)  "  Representatives  and  direct  taxes  shall  be  ap 
portioned  among  the  several  States  which  may  be  included 
within  this  Union,  according  to  their  respective  numbers,  which 
shall  be  determined  by  adding  to  the  whole  number  of  free  per- 

*  "We  quote  from  a  newspaper  report  of  the  charge,  and  have  no  knowledge 
that  the  accuracy  of  the  report  has  ever  been  denied. 


44  JAY'S  WORKS. 

sons,  including  those  bound  to  service  for  a  term  of  years,  and 
excluding  Indians  not  taxed,  three-fifths  of  all  other  persons." 

Now,  it  seems,  free  colored  persons  cannot  be  citizens,  be 
cause  they  are  not  in  this  section  so  called ;  but  unfortunately 
free  white  persons  are  not  called  citizens,  and  they  also  must 
therefore  be  disfranchised  !  Apprentices  ("  those  bound  to  ser 
vice  for  a  term  of  years,")  are  likewise  included  among  free 
persons,  and  they  also  cannot  be  citizens  ! 

Had  free  white  persons  been  spoken  of  as  citizens,  and  free 
black  persons  only  as  "  persons,"  then  indeed  there  would  have 
been  some  force  in  the  judge's  first  reason  ;  but  as  there  is  not 
the  slightest  reference  in  the  Constitution  to  the  complexion  of 
the  "  free  persons,"  we  cannot  understand  the  argument,  and 
proceed,  therefore,  to  his 

2d  reason.  "  They  (free  negroes)  are  not  so  styled,  (citizens,)  so 
far  as  I  am  aware,  in  the  laws  of  Congress,  or  of  any  of  the  States." 

It  would  thus  seem  that  men  with  black  skins  cannot  be  citi 
zens,  unless  the  laws  expressly  declare  them  to  be  so.  So  far 
as  we  are  aware,  men  with  red  hair  are  not  styled  citizens  in 
the  laws  of  Congress,  or  of  any  of  the  States. 

3d  reason.  "  His  Honor  then  read  from  Kent's  Commentary,  Yol. 
II,  p.  210,  a  note  in  which  the  commentator  speaks  of  the  degraded 
condition  of  the  blacks,  and  the  disabilities  under  which  they  labor, 
and  thence  inferred  that,  in  Kent's  opinion,  they  were  not  citizens." 

Had  the  judge  found  it  convenient  to  consult  the  text  of  this 
learned  and  independent  jurist,  the  following  passage  would 
have  saved  him  the  trouble  of  drawing  an  inference. 

"  The  article  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  declaring 
that  citizens  of  each  State  were  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  im 
munities  of  citizens  in  the  several  States,  applies  to  natural  born  or 
duly  naturalized  citizens,  and  if  they  remove  from  one  State  to  another, 
they  are  entitled  to  the  privileges  that  persons  of  the  same  description 
are  entitled  to  in  the  State  to  which  the  removal  is  made,  and  to  none 
other.  If,  therefore,  for  instance,  free  persons  of  color  are  not  enti 
tled  to  vote  in  Carolina,  free  persons  of  color  emigrating  there  from  a 
Northern  State  would  not  be  entitled  to  vote." 

Here  is  an  express  admission  of  the  citizenship  of  free  col 
ored  persons,  and  their  case  is  cited  to  illustrate  the  rights  of 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  45 

citizens  under  the  federal  Constitution.  If  a  free  black,  accord 
ing  to  the  commentary,  moving  from  one  State  to  another,  is, 
under  the  federal  Constitution,  entitled  only  to  such  privileges 
as  the  free  blacks  in  the  latter  State  enjoy,  it  follows  irresistibly 
that  he  is  entitled  to  such  privileges  as  the  free  blacks  do  there 
enjoy.  Now,  the  free  blacks  of  Connecticut  enjoy  a  legal  right 
to  go  to  school,  and  to  any  school  that  will  receive  them  ;  hence, 
according  to  Chancellor  Kent,  a  free  black  removing  from 
another  State  into  Connecticut,  has  the  same  right,  and  hence 
the  Black  Act  is  plainly  and  palpably  unconstitutional. 

4th.  "  Another  reason  for  believing  that  people  of  color  are  not 
considered  citizens,  is  found  in  the  fact,  that  when  the  United  States 
Constitution  was  adopted,  every  State  except  Massachusetts  tolerated 
slavery" 

Why  a  free  black  man  cannot  be  a  citizen,  because  another 
black  man  is  a  slave,  is  a  problem  we  confess  ourselves  unable 
to  solve. 

Such  are  the  arguments,  and  the  only  ones  adduced  by  the 
judge,  to  support  his  portentous  decision ;  a  decision  which 
tends  to  strip  the  free  negro  of  his  property  and  rights ;  renders 
him  an  alien  in  the  land  of  his  birth ;  exposes  him  to  contumely 
and  oppression,  and  prepares  the  way  for  his  forcible  deportation 
to  the  shores  of  Africa. 

In  order  to  do  full  justice  to  Judge  Daggett,  it  may  be  proper 
to  notice  his  answers  to  objections,  since  these  answers  may, 
perhaps,  be  regarded  as  negative  arguments.  To  the  assertion,, 
that  free  blacks  own  vessels  which  participate  in  the  peculiar 
privileges  of  American  shipping,  and  that  they  sue  in  the  United 
States  courts,  he  simply  replied,  that  these  claims  have  never 
been  settled  by  judicial  decisions.  To  the  argument  that  free 
blacks  may  be  guilty  of  high  treason,  he  replied,  "  So  may  any 
person  who  resides  under  the  government,  and  enjoys  its  pro 
tection,  if  he  rises  up  against  it." 

Having  thus  fairly  stated  the  judge's  arguments,  we  will  now 
take  the  liberty  of  presenting  a  few  facts  having  an  important 
bearing  on  this  question ;  facts,  be  it  remembered,  that  were 


46  JAY'S  WORKS. 

accessible  to  the  Judge,  had  he  thought  it  worth  while  to  look 
for  them. 

By  the  fourth  of  the  "  Articles  of  Confederation,"  it  was  pro 
vided,  that  "the  free  inhabitants  of  these  States  shall  be  entitled 
to  all  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  free  citizens  in  the  several 
States."  While  these  articles  were  under  consideration  in 
Congress,  it  appears  from  the  journals,  that  on  the  25th  of  June, 
1778,  "the  delegates  from  South  Carolina  moved  the  follow 
ing  amendment  in  behalf  of  their  State :  —  'In  Article  Fourth, 
between  the  words  free  inhabitants,  insert  WHITE.'  Passed  in 
the  negative  —  Ayes,  2  States,  Nays  8  States  —  1  State  di 
vided."  Here  then  was  a  solemn  decision  of  the  Revolutionary 
Congress,  that  free  negroes  should  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges 
and  immunities  of  free  citizens  in  the  several  States.  Judge 
Daggett  thinks  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  did 
not  regard  free  blacks  as  citizens,  because  in  1788  all  the  States, 
with  one  exception,  tolerated  slavery;  yet,  in  1778,  Congress 
decided  that  free  blacks  were  citizens,  although  all  the  States, 
without  one  exception,  tolerated  slavery.  Ten  years  after  this 
decision,  the  new  Constitution  was  formed,  and  the  clause  re 
specting  citizenship  in  the  several  States  was  transferred  to  it 
from  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  with  slight  verbal  alterations. 
That  the  clause  embraced  free  negroes  at  the  time  it  was  trans 
ferred,  was  settled  Jby  the  vote  we  have  quoted ;  no  words,  were 
added  'to  exclude  them  ;  no  intimation  was  given  that  the  new 
Constitution  was  disfranchising  thousands,  and  tens  of  thousands, 
who  Congress  had  declared  were  invested  with  all  the  rights  and 
immunities  of  free  citizens.  No  desire  was  expressed  to  dis 
franchise  these  people,  and  in  the  debates  on  the  Constitution, 
this  disfranchisement  was  never  alluded  to  either  in  the  lan 
guage  of  praise  or  of  censure ;  and  for  more  than  forty  years 
after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  no  suspicion  existed  that 
it  had  divested  the  free  blacks  of  the  citizenship  they  enjoyed 
under  the  Confederation,  till  the  discovery  was  made  by  the 
agent  and  orator  of  the  Windham  Colonization  Society,  and 
juridically  announced  by  the  Vice  President  of  the  New  Haven 
Colonization  Society. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  47 

Judge  Daggett  "  is  not  aware  that  free  blacks  are  styled  citizens 
in  the  laws  of  Congress  or  of  any  of  the  States  !  "  How  laborious 
has  been  his  search  for  such  laws,  we  shall  now  see.  Probably 
the  judge  will  admit  that  when  the  law  speaks  of  male  citizens, 
they  recognize  the  existence  of  female  citizens  ;  and  most  judges 
would  admit,  that  where  the  law  speaks  of  white  citizens,  they 
recognize  the  existence  of  citizens  who  are  not  white. 

The  act  of  Congress  of  1792,  for  organizing  the  militia,  pro 
vides  for  the  enrolment  of  "  free  white  male  citizens." 

The  act  of  Congress  of  1803,  "to  prevent  the  importation  of 
certain  persons  into  certain  States,  when  by  the  laws  thereof 
their  admission  is  prohibited,"  enacts  that  masters  and  captains 
of  vessels  shall  not  "  import  or  bring,  or  cause  to  be  imported  or 
brought,  any  negro,  mulatto,  or  other  person  of  color,  not  being  a 
native,  a  CITIZEN,  or  registered  seaman  of  the  United  States," 
&c. 

The  constitution  of  Judge  Daggett's  own  State,  limits  the 
right  of  suffrage  to  "free  white  male  citizens."  Why  male 
citizens,  if  there  are  no  female  citizens?  and  why  white  citizens, 
if  there  can  be  no  colored  ones  ?  Seven  or  eight  State  constitu 
tions,  in  the  same  manner,  recognize  the  existence  of  colored 
citizens.  Had  the  judge  extended  his  inquiries  into  State 
laws,  to  those  of  Massachusetts,  he  would  have  found  one  pro 
hibiting  any  negro  "other  than  a  CITIZEN  of  the  United 
States,"  or  a  subject  of  the  Emperor  of  Morocco,  from  tarrying 
in  the  Commonwealth  longer  than  two  months.  Had  he  taken 
the  trouble  to  consult  the  statute  book  of  New  York,  he  would 
have  found  the  following  clause  in  the  act  relative  to  elections, 
viz. :  "  If  the  person  so  offering  to  vote  be  a  colored  man,  the 
following  oath  shall  be  tendered  to  him :  '  You  do  swear  (or 
affirm)  that  you  are  of  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  that  for 
three  years  you  have  been  a  CITIZEN  OF  THIS  STATE,'  "  &c. 
Revised  Statutes,  I,  134. 

Had  the  judge  condescended  to  look  into  the  debates  of  the 
New  York  Convention  of  1821,  on  the  question  of  admitting  the 
free  blacks  to  the  right  of  suffrage,  he  would  have  discovered  to 
his  astonishment,  that  the  New  York  lawyers  and  judges  had  no 


48  JAY'S  WORKS. 

hesitation  in  admitting  these  people  to  be  citizens,  whatever 
might  be  their  objections  to  permitting  them  to  vote.  He  would 
have  found  Chancellor  Kent  earnestly  contending  for  their 
rights  to  citizenship  in  other  States  under  the  federal  Constitu 
tion.  He  would  have  found  Rufus  King,  (no  mean  authority,) 
concluding  an  argument  in  their  behalf,  with  these  words  :  "  As 
certainly  as  the  children  of  any  white  man  are  citizens,  so 
certainly  the  children  of  the  black  man  are  citizens." 

Had  the  judge  opened  the  constitution  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  he  would  have  met  with  a  clause  in  the  article  respecting 
the  elective  franchise,  declaring,  "  No  man  of  color,  unless  he 
shall  have  been  three  years  a  CITIZEN  OF  THIS  STATE,"  &c. 

On  the  4th  of  September,  1826,  Governor  Clinton,  of  New 
York,  addressed  a  letter  to  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
demanding  the  immediate  liberation  of  Gilbert  Horton,  a  colored 
man,  as  "  A  CITIZEN  of  this  State,"  he  having  been  impris 
oned  in  Washington  as  a  fugitive  slave. 

In  every  State  in  the  Union,  we  believe,  without  one  exception 
a  native  free  born  negro  may  legally  take,  hold,  and  convey 
real  estate.  Will  Judge  Daggett  deny  this  to  be  an  attribute  of 
citizenship?*  Will  he  maintain  that  any  but  citizens  may 
exercise  the  right  of  suffrage  ?  But  in  eight  or  ten  States,  free 
negroes  may  legally  vote.  True  it  is,  that  in  others,  this  privilege 
is  denied  to  them,  but  it  is  not  true  that  none  are  citizens  who 
cannot  vote.  The  act  of  Congress  respecting  naturalization, 
provides,  that  in  a  certain  case,  the  ividow  and  children  of  a 
deceased  alien  "  shall  be  citizens  of  the  United  States." 

Impressed  colored  sailors  have  been  claimed  by  the  national 
government,  as  "  citizens  of  the  United  States ; "  and  colored 
men  going  to  Europe,  have  received  passports  from  the  depart 
ment  of  State,  certifying  that  they  were  citizens  of  the  United 
States. 

The  proposed  constitution  of  the  new  State  of  Missouri  re- 

*  Real  estate  in  the  city  of  New  York  to  the  value  of  fifty  thousand  dollars 
was  lately  devised  to  a  free  colored  man  in  that  city,  but  according  to  the 
judge,  he  is  not  a  citizen,  and  of  course  cannot  take  by  devise.  If  so,  the 
property  must  go  to  the  heir  at  law,  or  escheat  to  the  State. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  49 

quired  the  Legislature  to  pass  such  laws  as  might  be  necessary 
"  to  prevent  free  negroes  and  mulattoes  from  coming  to  settle  in 
the  State,  under  any  pretext  whatever."  The  Legislature  ot 
New  York,  in  reference  to  this  provision,  on  the  15th  November, 
1820,  "  Resolved,  if  the  provisions  contained  in  any  proposed 
constitution  of  a  new  State  deny  to  any  CITIZENS  of  the  existing 
States  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  of  such  new 
State,  that  such  proposed  constitution  should  not  be  accepted  or 
confirmed,  the  same,  in  the  opinion  of  this  Legislature,  being 
void  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States."  This  resolution 
was  adopted  in  high  party  times,  by  an  almost  unanimous 
vote. 

The  constitution  being  submitted  to  Congress,  the  article 
excluding  colored  citizens,  was  deemed  by  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  a  violation  of  the  national  compact,  and  that  body 
refused  to  receive  Missouri  into  the  Union.  A  compromise  was 
at  last  agreed  to,  and  Congress  admitted  Missouri  on  the  express 
condition  that  the  offensive  clause  in  her  constitution  should 
never  authorize  any  law  by  which  any  citizen  of  any  of  the 
States  should  be  excluded  from  the  enjoyment  of  any  of  the 
privileges  and  immunities  to  which  such  citizen  is  entitled  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  and  that  the  Legislature  of 
Missouri  should  by  a  solemn  act  declare  their  assent  to  this 
condition.  The  Legislature  passed  the  act  required,  and  there 
upon  the  State  became  a  member  of  the  Union.  Yet  Judge 
Daggett  is  not  aware  of  any  act  of  Congress  recognizing  free 
blacks  as  citizens ! 

Admit  free  negroes  to  be  men,  and  to  be  born  free  in  the 
United  States,  and  it  is  impossible  to  frame  even  a  plausible 
argument  against  their  citizenship.  The  only  argument  on  this 
point  we  have  ever  met  with,  in  which  the  conclusion  is  legiti 
mately  deduced  from  the  premises,  is  by  a  late  writer,*  who 
maintains  that  the  negroes  are  a  distinct  race  of  animals.  Now 
it  must  be  conceded,  that  the  negro,  if  not  a  human  being,  is  not 

*The  author  of  "Evidences  against  the  Views  of  the  Abolitionists,  con 
sisting  of  physical  and  moral  proofs  of  the  natural  inferiority  of  the 
negroes."  New  York,  1833. 


50  JAY'S  WORKS. 

a  citizen.     We  recommend  the  following  reasoning  to  the  future 
judicial  apologists  of  the  Black  Act. 

"  His  (the  negro's)  lips  arc  thick,  his  zygomatic  muscles  large  and  full, 
his  jaws  large  and  projecting,  his  chin  retreating,  his  forehead  low,  flat, 
and  slanting,  and  as  a  consequence  of  this  latter  character,  his  eyeballs 
are  very  prominent,  apparently  larger  than  those  of  the  white  men  ; 
all  of  these  peculiarities  at  the  same  time  contributing  to  reduce  his 
facial  angle  almost  to  a  level  with  the  BRUTE.  If  then  it  is  consistent 
with  science  to  believe  that  the  mind  will  be  greater  in  proportion  to 
the  size  and  figure  of  the  brain,  it  is  equally  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
the  acknowledged  meanness  of  the  negro's  intellect  only  coincides  with 
the  shape  of  his  head ;  or  in  other  words,  that  his  want  of  capability 
to  receive  a  complicated  education,  renders  it  improper  and  impolitic 
that  he  should  be  allowed  the  privileges  of  CITIZENSHIP  in  an  enlight 
ened  country."  P.  25,  26. 

The  author  is  an  ultra  colonizationist,  and  the  conclusion  to 
which  he  arrives  is,  "  let  the  blacks  be  removed,  nolens  volens, 
from  among  us." 

We  have  dwelt  the  longer  on  the  Connecticut  decision,  on 
account  of  its  immense  importance  to  a  numerous  class  of  our 
fellow  countrymen.  The  victims  of  a  cruel  prejudice,  and  of 
wicked  laws,  they  especially  claimed  the  aid  and  sympathy  of 
the  humane,  when  striving  to  elevate  themselves  by  the  acqui 
sition  of  useful  knowledge.  But  Judge  Daggett's  doctrine 
crushes  them  to  the  earth.  Denounced  by  a  powerful  society, 
extending  its  influence  over  every  part  of  our  country,  as 
"  NUISANCES,"  and  judicially  declared  not  to  be  citizens,  they 
are  delivered  over  to  the  tormentors,  bound  hand  and  foot.  If 
not  citizens,  they  may  be  dispossessed  of  their  dwellings,  for 
they  cannot  legally  hold  real  estate  —  they  may  be  denied  the 
means  of  a  livelihood,  and  forbidden  to  buy  and  sell,  or  to  prac 
tise  any  trade,  for  they  are  no  longer  protected  by  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States.  Nay,  they  may  be  expelled  from 
town  to  town,  and  from  State  to  State,  till  finding  no  resting 
place  for  the  soles  of  their  feet,  they  "  CONSENT  "  to  embark  for 
Africa. 

However  inconclusive  we  are  disposed  to  regard  Judge  Dag 
gett's  arguments,  they  were  satisfactory  to  the  jury,  and  a  verdict 
was  given  against  Miss  Crandall.  The  cause  was  removed  to 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  51 

the  Connecticut  Court  of  Errors,  where  all  the  proceedings  were 
set  aside  on  technical  grounds.  Certain  of  the  "  quiet,  peaceable, 
humane,  and  inoffensive  people  of  Canterbury,"  tired  with  the 
law's  delay,  determined  on  ejecting  the  school  by  a  summary 
process,  and  accordingly  mobbed  the  house  by  night,  and  smashed 
in  the  windows.  It  was  now  discovered,  that  it  was  the  "  per 
sons  "  of  inoffensive  females,  and  not  of  Mr.  Judson  and  his 
associates,  that  were  endangered,  and  the  school  was  abandoned ; 
thus  were  the  efforts  of  the  admirers  of  "  the  benevolent  sys 
tem  of  colonization  "  crowned  with  entire  success. 

Soon  after  Judge  Daggett's  decision,  a  most  inflammatory 
petition  to  the  Connecticut  Legislature,  was  circulated  in  New 
Haven.  We  quote  from  a  printed  copy. 

"  If  they  (the  negroes)  have  rights,  we  humbly  hope  it  is  not  yet 
too  late  to  presume  that  the  white  man  also,  the  only  legal  native  Amer 
ican  citizen  whom  we  shall  ever  consent  to  acknowledge,  may  be  per 
mitted  to  suggest  that  he  has  some  rights.  If  he  (the  white  man) 
purchases  a  piece  of  land,  the  negro  who  locates  near  him,  deteriorates 
its  value  from  20  to  50  per  cent. ;  for  who  will  have  a  negro  neighbor 
hood,  or  live  in  unceasing  fear  of  theft  and  trespass  ?  The  white  man 
cannot  labor  upon  equal  terms  with  the  negro ;  he  is  compelled  to  yield 
the  market  to  the  African,  and  with  his  family  ultimately  becomes  the 
tenant  of  an  alms-house,  or  is  driven  from  the  State  to  seek  a  better 
lot  in  the  western  wilds.  THUS  HAVE  THOUSANDS  of  our  most  val 
uable  citizens  been  banished  from  home  and  kindred,  for  the  accommo 
dation  of  the  most  debased  race  that  the  civilized  world  has  ever  seen." 

The  petitioners,  as  might  be  supposed,  are  colonizationists. 
"If  the  negro  cannot  consistently  with  our  interest  or  our  feel 
ings  be  admitted  to  the  same  rights  that  we  enjoy,  let  him  seek 
a  country  where  he  will  find  those  who  are  his  equals ;  let  us 
unite  in  aiding  him  to  reach  that  country" 

It  has  never  been  denied  that  good  men  belong  to  the  Coloniza 
tion  Society ;  and  it  ought  not  to  be  denied  that  even  good  men 
are  fallible,  and  subject  to  erroneous  opinions  and  unwarrantable 
prejudices.  To  us  it  appears  unquestionable,  that  the  facts 
developed  in  the  preceding  pages,  prove  a  tendency  in  the  Soci 
ety  to  excite  in  the  community,  a  persecuting  spirit  towards  the 
free  blacks.  That  the  pious,  and  respectable  members  of  the 
Society,  detest  the  horrible  outrages  recently  committed  upon 


52  JAY'S  WORKS. 

these  people  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  elsewhere,  it  would 
be  both  foolish  and  wicked  to  doubt ;  and  yet  no  one  who  can 
didly  and  patiently  investigates  the  whole  subject,  can  fail  to 
be  convinced  that  these  outrages  never  would  have  happened, 
had  the  Society  never  existed.  The  assertion  is  not  hazardous, 
that  of  the  multitudes  composing  the  negro  mobs,  there  was  not 
an  individual  less  disposed  than  the  Canterbury  town  meeting, 
to  laud  the  "  benevolent  colonization  system."  Every  wretch 
who  participated  in  beating  and  plundering  free  negroes,  would 
rejoice  in  their  expulsion  from  their  country,  and  in  the  Society 
he  beholds  an  instrument  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  wishes. 
But  how  is  it  possible  that  the  best  and  the  worst  of  men  can 
unite  in  supporting  the  same  institution?  In  the  first  place, 
these  good  men,  as  is  abundantly  evident  from  their  own  confes 
sions,  are  actuated  by  motives  of  supposed  public  policy,  as  well 
as  benevolence,  in  promoting  the  colonization  of  people  whom 
they  regard  as  nuisances ;  and  in  the  second  place,  there  are  in 
the  constitution,  three  talismanic  words,  which  through  the  influ 
ence  of  existing  prejudices  have  blinded  the  eyes  of  these  good 
men  to  the  practical  operation  of  the  Society  on  the  colored 
people.  The  words  are  "WITH  THEIR  CONSENT."  It  is  spe 
ciously  argued,  if  the  free  blacks  consent  to  go  to  Africa,  why  not 
send  them  ?  if  they  do  not  wish  to  go,  they  are  at  liberty  to 
remain.  This  argument  seems  for  the  most  part  to  have 
benumbed  the  consciences  and  understandings  of  coloniza- 
tionists,  as  to  the  cruel  persecution  which  their  Society  necessa 
rily  encourages.  They  would  be  horrified  at  the  idea  of  their 
agents  scouring  the  country,  and  seizing  men,  women  and  child 
ren,  placing  them  on  the  rack,  till  as  joint  after  joint  was  dislo 
cated,  the  suffering  wretches  consented  to  go  to  Africa ;  and  yet 
the  Society  feels  no  compunction  in  countenancing  legal  oppres 
sion  having  the  same  ultimate  object  in  view,  and  in  transporting 
negroes  whose  consent  they  well  know  has  been  extorted  by  the 
most  abominable  persecution.  Many  will  feel  disposed  to  deny 
the  truth  of  these  assertions  ;  but  not,  we  trust,  after  seeing  the 
proof  of  them,  which  we  will  now  proceed  to  offer. 

We  have  already  adverted  to  the  cruel  laws  by  which  these 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  53 

people  are  oppressed,  and  kept,  purposely  kept,  in  ignorance 
and  degradation.  Now  let  it  be  recollected,  that  with  but  few 
exceptions,  these  laws  have  been  either  enacted,  or  are  kept  in 
force  by  legislatures  which  have  formally  and  in  their  legisla 
tive  capacity,  passed  resolutions  in  favor  of  the  Society.  Four 
teen  States  have  thus  avowed  their  attachment  to  colonization. 
Now  had  these  States,  including  Connecticut,  Ohio,  and  several 
of  the  slave  States,  repealed  their  laws  against  the  free  blacks, 
and  forborne  to  enact  new  ones,  their  sincerity  in  approving  a 
plan  for  the  removal  of  these  people  with  their  consent  would 
have  been  less  questionable  than  it  is  now,  when  they  persist  in 
a  course  of  policy  well  calculated  to  coerce  that  consent.  The 
Society  appears  to  be  a  particular  favorite  with  the  slave  States, 
with  the  exception  of  South  Carolina,  where  its  true  character 
seems  to  have  been  misunderstood. 

Now  hear  the  acknowledgment  of  a  Southern  writer.  We 
have  before  us  the  fourth  edition,  1834,  of  "  A  Treatise  on  the 
Patriarchal  System  of  Society  : "  by  a  Florida  slave-holder.  It 
is  a  treatise,  in  sober  earnestness,  on  the  means  of  perpetuating 
slavery,  and  increasing  its  profits.  The  author  says,  p.  12 — 
"  Colonization  in  Africa  has  been  proposed  to  the  free  colored 
people  :  to  forward  which,  a  general  system  of  persecution 
against  them,  upheld  from  the  pulpit,  has  been  legalized  through 
out  the  Southern  States."  The  writer  does  not  explain  his  al 
lusion  to  the  Southern  pulpit ;  but  we  may  judge  of  its  influence 
on  the  condition  of  the  free  blacks,  from  the  avowal  already 
quoted  from  the  Southern  Religious  Telegraph,  of  its  repug 
nance  to  these  people  being  taught  to  read,  because  such  an  ac 
quirement  would  be  an  inducement  with  them  to  remain  in  this 
country ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  the  better  they  were  treated 
here,  the  less  likely  would  they  be  to  consent  to  go  to  Africa. 

The  Legislatures  of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  it  is  well  known, 
have  made  large  appropriations  for  colonization,  and  yet  these 
Legislatures  are  among  the  most  malignant  persecutors  of  the 
free  blacks.  The  original  bill  making  the  Virginia  appropria 
tion,  contained  a  clause  for  the  compulsory  transportation  of  free 
blacks.  Let  it  be  recollected  that  the  Colonization  Society  has 


54  JAY'S  WORKS. 

ever  been  the  peculiar  favorite  of  Virginia,  and  that  her  most 
distinguished  citizens  have  been  enrolled  among  its  officers  ;  and 
let  us  now  see  how  colonization  has  been  promoted  in  that  State. 
On  a  motion  to  strike  out  the  compulsory  clause,  Mr.  Brodnax 
thus  expressed  himself  against  the  motion  : 

IT  IS   IDLE    TO  TALK  ABOUT  NOT  RESORTING  TO  FORCE.     Every 

body  must  look  to  the  introduction  of  force  of  some  kind  or  other.  If 
the  free  negroes  are  'willing  to  go,  they  will  go ;  if  not  willing,  THEY 
MUST  BE  COMPELLED  TO  GO.  Some  gentlemen  think  it  politic  not 
now  to  insert  this  feature  in  the  bill,  though  they  proclaim  their  readi 
ness  to  resort  to  it  when  it  becomes  necessary ;  they  think,  that  for  a 
year  or  two,  a  sufficient  number  will  consent  to  go,  and  THEN  THE 
REST  CAN  BE  COMPELLED.  For  my  part,  I  deem  it  better  to  ap 
proach  the  question  and  settle  it  at  once,  and  avow  it  openly.  The 
intelligent  portion  of  the  free  negroes  know  very  well  what  is  going  on. 
Will  they  not  see  your  debates  ?  Will  they  not  see  that  COERCION  is 
ULTIMATELY  TO  BE  RESORTED  TO  ?  I  have  already  expressed  it  as 
my  opinion,  that  few,  very  few,  will  voluntarily  consent  to  emigrate,  if 
no  compulsory  measures  be  adopted.  Without  it,  you  will  still,  no 
doubt,  have  applicants  for  removal  equal  to  your  means.  Yes,  sir, 
people  who  will  not  only  consent,  but  beg  you  to  deport  them.  But 
what  sort  of  consent*?  —  a  consent  extorted  by  a  species  of  oppression, 
calculated  to  render  their  situation  among  us  insupportable  !  Many  of 
those  who  have  been  already  sent  off,  went  with  their  avowed  consent, 
but  under  the  influence  of  a  more  decided  compulsion  than  any  which 
this  bill  holds  out.  I  will  not  express  in  its  fullest  extent,  the  idea  I 
entertain  of  what  has  been  done,  or  what  enormities  will  be  perpetrated 
to  induce  this  class  of  persons  to  leave  the  State.  Who  does  not  know 
that  when  a  free  negro,  by  crime  or  otherwise,  has  rendered  himself 
obnoxious  to  a  neighborhood,  how  easy  it  is  for  a  party  to  visit  him  one 
night,  take  him  from  his  bed  and  family,  and  apply  to  him  the  gentle 
admonition  of  a  severe  flagellation,  to  induce  him  to  go  away  ?  In  a  few 
nights  the  dose  can  be  repeated,  perhaps  increased,  until,  in  the  lan 
guage  of  the  physicians,  quantum  suff.  has  been  administered  to  pro 
duce  the  desired  operation,  and  the  fellow  becomes  perfectly  willing 
to  move  away.  I  have  certainly  heard,  (if  incorrectly,  the  gentle 
man  from  Southampton  will  put  me  right,)  that  all  the  large  cargo  of 
emigrants,  lately  transported  from  that  country  to  Liberia,  all  of  whom 
professed  to  be  willing  to  go,  were  rendered  so  by  some  such  ministration 
as  I  have  described.  Indeed,  sir,  all  of  us  look  to  FORCE  of  some  kind 
or  other,  direct  or  indirect,  moral  or  physical,  legal  or  illegal." 

Another  member,  Mr.  Fisher,  in  opposing  the  motion,  said  : 

"  If  we  wait  till  the  free  negroes  consent  to  leave  the  State,  we  shall 
wait  until  time  is  no  more.  They  never  will  give  their  consent.  He 
believed  if  the  compulsory  principle  were  stricken  out,  this  class  would 
be  forced  to  leave  by  the  harsh  treatment  of  the  whites.'" 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  55 

The  compulsory  clause  was  stricken  out,  but  we  have  the  as 
surance  of  Mr.  Brodnax,  that  they  who  objected  to  it  at  present, 
were  ready  to  resort  to  force  whenever  it  should  become  neces 
sary  ;  and  he  tells  us,  that  all  look  to  force  of  some  kind  or 
other ;  and  he  might  have  added,  "  all  of  us  look  to  the  Coloni 
zation  Society  as  the  instrument  by  which  the  forcible  expulsion 
of  the  free  negroes  is  to  be  effected."  Nor  do  they  look  in  vain. 
At  the  very  time  that  the  negroes  of  Southampton  were  suffer 
ing  the  barbarities  he  describes,  the  managers  of  the  Society 
addressed  their  auxiliaries,  urging  them  to  increased  efforts  in 
raising  funds,  and,  alluding  to  the  excitement  occasioned  by  the 
insurrection  at  Southampton,  remarked,  "the  free  people  of 
color  have  awakened  from  their  slumber,  to  a  keen  sense  of  their 
situation,  and  are  ready  in  large  numbers  to  emigrate  to  the 
Colony  of  Liberia."  Address,  17 th  Nov.  1831. 

A  large  number  of  these  miserable  people  did  indeed  consent 
to  go  to  Africa,  and  the  managers  well  knew  how  their  consent 
was  obtained.  "  I  warned  the  managers  against  this  Virginia 
business,"  said  Mr.  Breckenridge  in  his  speech  before  the  Soci 
ety,  "and^etf  they  sent  out  two  shiploads  of  vagabonds,  not  fit 
to  go  to  such  a  place,  and  that  were  coerced  away  as  truly  as  if 
it  had  been  done  with  a  cartwhip." 

Hear  the  confession  of  Mr.  Gurley,  the  Secretary  of  the  So 
ciety,  on  this  subject : 

"  Our  friends  at  Norfolk  appealed  to  us,  and  said  the  people  were 
persecuted,  and  that  it  was  a  matter  of  humanity  to  take  them.  Our 
agent  said  they  were  driven  from  the  county,  and  had  appealed  to  him, 
and  begged  to  go  to  Liberia."  Speech  before  the  Society. 

Hear  the  testimony  of  Thomas  C.  Brown,  from  Liberia,  given 
in  May,  1834 : 

"  I  am  acquainted  with  several  from  Southampton  County,  Virginia, 
who  informed  me  that  they  received  several  hundred  lashes  from  the 
patrols  to  make  them  willing  to  go.  In  one  instance,  a  man  was  sev 
eral  times  compelled  to  witness  the  lashes  inflicted  on  his  wife,  and 
then  to  be  severely  flogged  himself.  In  another  instance,  a  family 
received  information  from  their  white  neighbors,  that  unless  they  went 
to  Liberia,  they  should  be  whipped.  Having  no  means  of  redress, 
they  were  obliged  to  go." 


56 

Hear  the  New  York  Colonization  Society,  when  addressing 
the  public: 

"  We  say  to  them  (the  free  blacks),  we  think  you  may  improve  your 
condition  by  going  thither,  but  if  you  prefer  remaining  here,  you  will 
be  protected  and  treated  with  kindness"  Proceedings  of  Neio  York  Col. 
Soc.,  1831. 

Hear  the  same  Society,  when  addressing  the  Legislature : 

"  We  do  not  ask  that  the  provisions  of  our  constitution  and  statute 
book  should  be  so  modified  as  to  relieve  and  exalt  the  condition  of  the 
colored  people  while  they  remain  with  us.  Let  these  provisions  stand 
in  ALL  THEIR  RIGOR,  to  work  out  the  ultimate  and  unbounded  good 
of  this  people."  In  plain  English,  to  coerce  their  consent  to  go  to 
Africa.  Memorial  to  New  York  Legislature,  1832. 

We  have  seen  what  are  the  Connecticut  and  Virginia  plans 
for  promoting  colonization :  now  for  the  Pennsylvania  plan. 
At  a  public  meeting  held  in  the  borough  of  Columbia,  (Penn.) 
at  the  Town  Hall,  23d  August,  1834,  the  following,  among 
other  resolutions,  were  unanimously  passed. 

"  Resolved,  that  we  will  not  purchase  any  articles  that  can  be  pro 
cured  elsewhere,  or  give  our  VOTE  for  any  office  whatever,  to  any  one 
who  employs  negroes  to  do  that  species  of  labor  white  men  have  been 
accustomed  to  perform. 

"  Resolved,  that  the  Colonization  Society  ought  to  be  supported  by  all 
the  citizens  favorable  to  the  removal  of  the  Uacksfrom  this  country" 

Here  we  find  the  support  of  the  Society  avowedly  coupled 
with  a  most  detestable  plan  of  persecution.  And  now  for  the 
practical  operation  of  this  meeting  of  the  friends  of  the  "  benev 
olent  colonization  system."  It  appears  from  a  Columbia  paper, 
that  one  or  two  nights  after  the  meeting,  a  mob  collected,  and 
partly  tore  down  the  dwelling  of  a  black  man ;  they  then  pro 
ceeded  to  the  office  of  another  black  man,  who  had  had  the 
presumption  to  deal  in  lumber,  "  a  species  of  labor  white  men 
had  been  accustomed  to  perform,"  broke  open  the  windows  and 
door,  rifled  the  desk,  scattered  the  papers  in  the  street,  and 
attempted  to  overturn  the  building.  Surely  the  Society  may 
reasonably  anticipate  the  consent  of  the  blacks  to  emigrate, 
when  in  Connecticut,  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia,  such  cogent 
arguments  are  used  to  obtain  it.  Were  the  Society  governed, 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  57 

as  it  ought  to  be,  by  Christian  principles,  it  would  shrink  from 
encouraging  persecution  by  accomplishing  its  object,  the  expor 
tation  of  its  victims.  It  would  say  explicitly  to  the  authors  of 
these  atrocities, "  You  shall  gain  nothing  by  your  cruelty,  through 
our  instrumentality.  We  will  not  encourage  your  farther  perse 
cutions,  by  removing  those  whose  consent  you  have  obtained  by 
such  unjustifiable  means ;  we  will  not,  to  please  you, 

'  Keep  the  word  of  promise  to  the  ear, 
And  break  it  to  the  hope.'  " 

But  alas,  it  has  virtually  given  official  notice  that  it  will  transport 
all  whose  consent  can  be  obtained,  no  matter  by  what  barbarity. 
Hear  the  declaration  of  Mr.  Gurley,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Society  : 

"  Should  they  (free  blacks)  BE  URGED  BY  ANY  STRESS  or  CIR 
CUMSTANCES  to  seek  an  asylum  beyond  the  limits  of  the  United  States, 
humanity  and  religion  will  alike  dictate  that  they  should  be  assisted  to 
remove  and  establish  themselves  in  freedom  and  prosperity  in  the  land 
of  their  CHOICE."  Letter  to  gentlemen  in  Neio  York. 

True  it  is  the  free  blacks  have  been  rendered  by  prejudice 
and  persecution  an  ignorant  and  degraded  class ;  but  they  are 
still  competent  to  appreciate  the  practical  character  of  coloniza 
tion  philanthropy. 

The  following  resolutions,  passed  by  a  meeting  of  free  blacks 
in  New  Bedford,  in  1832,  express  the  unanimous  opinion  of  all 
their  brethren  who  have  intelligence  to  form,  or  courage  to 
express  an  opinion  on  the  subject. 

"  Resolved,  That  in  whatever  light  we  view  the  Colonization  Soci 
ety,  we  discover  nothing  in  it  but  terror,  prejudice,  and  oppression. 
The  warm  and  beneficent  hand  of  philanthropy  is  not  apparent  in  the 
system,  but  the  influence  of  the  Society  on  public  opinion  is  more  pre 
judicial  to  the  interests  and  welfare  of  the  people  of  color  in  the  United 
States,  than  slavery  itself. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Society,  to  effect  its  purpose,  the  removal  of 
free  people  of  color  (not  the  slaves)  through  its  agents,  teaches  the 
public  to  believe  that  it  is  patriotic  and  benevolent  to  withhold  from  us 
knowledge,  and  the  means  of  acquiring  subsistence ;  and  to  look  upon 
us  as  unnatural  and  illegal  residents  in  this  country,  and  thus  by  the 
force  of  prejudice,  if  not  by  law,  endeavor  to  compel  us  to  embark  for 
Africa,  and  that  too  apparently  by  our  own  free  will  and  consent." 


58  JAY'S  WORKS. 

And  now  let  us  ask  what  purpose  is  to  be  answered  by  perse 
cuting  this  people,  and  keeping  them  ignorant  and  degraded  ? 
Does  any  one  believe  that  they  will  ever  be  removed  from  the 
country?  They  now  amount  to  362,000.  In  16  years,  2,162 
have  been  sent  away,  some  at  first  voluntarily,  but  many  of  them 
through  coercion.  But  can  cruelty,  be  it  ever  so  extreme, 
furnish  the  Society  with  funds  and  ships  sufficient  to  transport 
such  a  multitude  ?  They  must,  in  spite  of  Connecticut  and  Vir 
ginia  persecution,  remain  with  us.  And  if  they  are  to  remain 
with  us,  what  conduct  towards  them  do  policy  and  religion  pre 
scribe  ?  Conduct  precisely  opposite  to  that  pursued  by  the 
Society.  We  must  instruct  and  elevate  them,  if  we  would  not 
be  incumbered  by  an  ignorant  and  depraved  population ;  we 
must  treat  them  with  justice  and  kindness,  if  we  would  avoid  the 
displeasure  of  HIM  who  has  declared,  "Ye  shall  not  oppress 
one  another." 


CHAPTER    III. 

INFLUENCE     OF     THE     COLONIZATION     SOCIETY    ON     AFRICA 

SUPPRESSION    OF    THE    SLAVE-TRADE. 

VERY  many  who  now  despair  of  extirpating  slavery  by  means 
of  the  Society,  continue  to  support  it  from  a  belief  that  it  will 
confer  rich  blessings  on  Africa.  These  anticipated  blessings  are 
the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade,  and  the  diffusion  of  religion 
and  civilization.  Let  us  at  present  inquire  how  far  the  first  may 
reasonably  be  expected. 

In  the  declarations  of  the  Society  and  its  members  on  this 
subject,  we  shall  find  an  astonishing  medley  of  ignorance,  rash 
assertion,  and  honest  confession. 

"  Sierra  Leone  has  repaid  Africa  with  still  greater  blessings ;  her 
example,  her  influence  and  efforts,  have  given  peace  and  security  to  the 
neighboring  coast ;  and  who  can  estimate  the  extent  of  misery  pre 
vented,  and  of  happiness  conferred,  to  a  population  delivered  from  all 
the  horrors  of  the  slave-trade  ?  "  Fifth  Rep.  p.  18. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  59 

"  The  line  of  coast  from  Sierra  Leone  to  Cape  Mount,  is  now  under 
British  protection  ;  and  from  Cape  Mount  to  Trade  Town,  a  distance  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  miles,  the  slave-trade  cannot  be  prosecuted 
with  the  least  hope  of  success.  Afr.  Rep.,  II,  p.  125 — Editorial. 

"  Every  colony  of  civilized  inhabitants,  established  on  that  coast,  and 
resolved  to  stop  this  trade  to  the  extent  of  its  means,  will,  at  all  events, 
put  an  end  to  it  for  a  considerable  distance.  The  colonies  of  Sierra 
Leone,  and  of  Liberia,  both  produce  this  effect  within  their  respective 
vicinities."  Judge  Blackford's  Address  to  the  Indiana  Colonization 
Society.  Afr.  Rep.,  VI,  p.  66. 

Of  these  compliments  to  Sierra  Leone,  it  must  be  observed, 
one  is  paid  officially  by  the  Board  of  Managers,  and  the  other 
by  the  Editor  of  the  Repository.  We  beg  the  reader  to  keep 
them  in  mind,  as  we  shall  hereafter  inquire  into  their  tnith.  We 
will  now  proceed  to  notice  some  assertions  relative  to  the  agency 
of  the  Liberia  colony  in  suppressing  the  slave-trade. 

"  In  fact,  the  Colonization  Society  proposes  the  ONLY  means  by 
which  this  accursed  trade  can  ever  be  effectually  stopped ;  and,  indeed, 
the  Colony  of  Liberia,  which  this  Society  has  planted,  has  already  freed 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  that  coast  from  the  ravages  of  these 
enemies  of  the  human  race"  Address  cf  J.  A.  McKinney,  4th  July, 
1830.  Afr.  Rep.,  VI,  p.  231. 

"  The  flag  that  waves  on  Cape  Montserado,  proclaims  to  the  slave 
trader  that  there  is  one  spot,  even  in  Africa,  consecrated  to  freedom, 
one  spot  which  his  polluted  foot  shall  not  tread."  Speech  of  G.  Smith, 
V.  Pres.  13th  Jan.  1831.  Uth  Rep. 

"  Did  we  desire  to  put  an  end  to  these  outrages  upon  humanity,  (the 
slave-trade,)  the  Colonization  Society  offers  itself  as  the  ONLY  efficient 
means.  The  slaver  has  dared  to  show  herself  but  once  within  the  lim 
its  of  Liberia,  and  then  she  received  the  rewards  of  her  temerity." 
Proceedings  of  N.  Y.  Col.  Soc.  1832. 

"  No  slaver  now  dares  come  ivithin  one  hundred  miles  of  the  settle 
ment"  Rev.  Dr.  Hawkes's  Speech  at  Col.  Meeting  in  New  York,  Octo 
ber,  1833. 

"  In  less  than  thirteen  years  since  its  foundation,  Liberia  contains  about 
3000  free  and  happy  citizens,  who  have  removed  from  oppression  and 
bondage  to  the  enjoyment  of  liberal  institutions.  The  slave-trade  has 
been  UTTERLY  DESTROYED  along  its  ENTIRE  COAST,  formerly  the 
most  frequented  mart  of  human  flesh."  Report  of  Philadelphia  Young 
Men's  Col.  Soc.  made  24th  Feb.  1835,  U.  S.  Gazette,  4th  March,  1835. 

The  above  are  specimens  of  the  assertions  which  have  been 
rashly  made  and  credulously  received.  Let  us  now  attend  to 
the  honest  confession  on  this  subject,  and  let  the  reader  compare 
them  with  the  foregoing  assertions.  That  these  confessions  may 


60  JAY'S  WORKS. 

be  better  understood,  it  may  be  well  to  mention,  that  in  the 
remarks  accompanying  a  map  of  Liberia,  published  in  the  Gth 
vol.  of  the  African  Repository,  it  is  stated, "  The  colony  of  Liberia 
extends  from  the  Gallinas  River  to  the  territory  of  Kroo  Settra, 
a  distance  of  about  280  miles  along  the  coast.  The  territory  at 
present,  (1830,)  under  the  actual  jurisdiction  of  the  colony, 
extends  from  Grand  Cape  Mount,  to  Trade  Town,  a  distance  of 
about  150  miles."  It  appears,  from  the  map,  that  the  last  limits 
embrace  Cape  Mount,  Cape  Montserado,  on  which  is  built  the 
town  of  Monrovia,  Bushrod  Island,  Bassa  Cove,  and  Trade 
Town. 

"  The  records  of  the  colony  afford  abundant  and  unequivocal  testi 
mony  of  the  undiminished  extent  and  atrocity  of  the  slave-trade. 
From  eight  to  ten,  and  even  fifteen  Aressels  have  engaged  at  the  same 
time  in  this  odious  traffic,  almost  within  reach  of  the  guns  of  Liberia, 
and  as  late  as  July,  1825,  there  were  existing  contracts  for  eight  hundred 
slaves  to  be  furnished  in  the  short  space  of  four  months,  WITHIN 

EIGHT    MILES    OF    MONROVIA."      Rep.  X,  p.  44,  1827. 

"  From  all  I  can  learn,  I  am  induced  to  believe,  that  the  slave-trade 
is  now  carried  on  at  the  Gallinas,  between  Cape  Mount  and  Sierra 
Leone,  and  to  the  leeward  of  this  place,  to  a  greater  extent  than  it  has 
been  for  many  years."  Letter  from  R.  Randall,  Agent  at  Liberia, 
28th  Dec.  1828.  Afr.  Rep.,  V,  p.  4. 

"  Frequently  within  sight  of  the  colonial  factories,  the  slave-traders 
carry  on  their  operations.  The  slave-trade  never  has  been  carried  on 
with  more  activity,  than  it  is  at  this  time.  There  is  established  at  Gal 
linas,  a  regular  slave-agent,  who  furnishes  slaves  to  the  slave-vessels. 
He  receives  his  goods  from  trading  vessels,  and  it  is  said  principally 
from  an  American  vessel.  He  purchases  large  numbers  of  slaves,  and 
furnishes  the  slave-vessels,  which  principally  bring  out  specie.  These 
vessels  run  up  and  down  the  coast  until  a  convenient  opportunity 
offers,  when  they  run  in  and  get  their  cargoes  of  slaves.  Some  of 
them  are  captured,  and  I  have  been  informed,  they  have  been  bought 
afterwards  by  their  original  oiuners,  and  that  the  same  vessel  has  fre 
quently  been  bought  and  sold  several  times."  Letter  from  R.  Ran 
dall,  Agent  at  Liberia,  Feb.  1829,  Afr.  Rep.,  V,  p.  148.  The  same 
letter  states  the  astounding  fact,  that  "  Mamma,  the  proprietress  of 
Bushrod  Island,  just  in  front  of  Monrovia,  whose  town  is  not  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  our  settlements  on  that  island,"  was 
engaged  in  the  slave-trade,  and  had  sold  several  hundred — p.  150. 

"  It  is  painful  to  state,  that  the  managers  have  reason  to  believe  that 
the  slave-trade  is  still  prosecuted  to  a  great  extent,  and  with  circum 
stances  of  undiminished  atrocity.  The  fact  that  much  was  done  by  Mr. 
Ashmun  to  banish  it  from  the  territory,  under  the  colonial  jurisdiction, 
is  unquestionably  true,  but  it  now  exists  even  on  the  territory ;  and  a 
little  to  the  north  and  south  of  Liberia,  it  is  seen  in  its  true  characters 
of  fraud,  and  rapine,  and  blood."  Rep.,  XIII,  p.  13. — 1830 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION     SOCIETY.  61 

Now,  be  it  recollected,  that  it  was  after  this  official  annuncia 
tion  by  the  Board  of  Managers,  that  the  slave-trade  existed  even 
on  the  territory  of  Liberia,  that  the  African  Repository  pub- 
lished  without  contradiction  the  vaunt  of  Mr.  McKinney  already 
quoted,  that  the  colony  had  freed  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  of  the  coast  from  the  slave-trade ! 

"  I  hope  the  Board  will  adopt  some  more  effectual  measures  for  sup 
pressing  the  slave-trade  within  the  territory  of  Liberia.  Since  the 
death  of  Don  Miguel  of  Bassa,  Peter  Blanco,  a  Spanish  slave-trader, 
for  some  years  a  resident  in  the  Gallinas,  has  opened  a  slave  factory  at 
GRAND  CAPE  MOUNT.  Such  a  thing  ought  not  to  be,  as  it  is  only 
forty-five  miles  from  here.  I  am  sorry  to  remark,  that  this  abominable 
traffic  is  carried  on  with  the  utmost  activity,  all  along  the  coast,  Capt. 
Parker,  during  liis  trading  at  the  Gallinas  of  about  three  weeks,  saw 
no  less  than  nine  hundred  shipped."  Letter  from  A.  D.  Williams, 
Agent  of  the  Society  at  Liberia, — IQlh  Sept.  1830.  Afr.  Rep.,  VI,  p. 
275. 

"  With  undiminished  atrocity  and  activity  is  this  odious  traffic  now 
carried  on  all  along  the  African  coast ;  slave  factories  are  established 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  colony,"  &c.  Rep.,  XIV,  p.  11 — 1831. 

"  The  cursed  practice  of  slave-trading,  I  regret  to  say,  is  still  car 
ried  on  between  this  and  Sierra  Leone."  Letter  of  Rev.  Mr.  Cox;  Mon 
rovia,  8th  of  April,  1833.  Afr.  Rep.,  IX,  p.  252. 

"  Bassa  Cove  was  purchased*  by  Governor  Pinney  from  King  Joe 
Harris,  the  native  sovereign  of  that  fine  harbor.  It  was  bought  at  a 
moderate  price,  and  without  a  drop  of  spirits.  The  negotiation  wa 
effected  in  November  last,  1834,  and  affords  peculiar  satisfaction  to 
the  friends  of  humanity,  inasmuch  as  no  less  than  500  SLAVES  had 
been  shipped  from  there  in  October"  N.  Y.  Commercial  Advertiser, 
nth  March,  1835.  The  same  fact  is  stated  in  the  "  Colonization 
Herald"  ±th  April,  1835. 

Such  are  the  refutations  furnished  by  the  Society  itself,  of  all 
its  boasts  about  suppressing  the  slave-trade  ;  and  yet  we  are  told 
that  the  Society  is  the  ONLY  means  of  putting  an  end  to  the 
traffic !  It  seems  never  to  occur  to  these  gentlemen,  that  the 
abolition  of  slavery  would,  as  a  matter  of  course,  put  an  imme 
diate  and  total  stop  to  the  trade. t 

*  Bassa  Cove  is  situated  between  Monrovia  and  Trade  Town,  and  has  there 
fore  been  for  years  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  colony  ;  of  course  the  pur 
chase  alluded  to,  must  have  been  of  the  possession  of  the  native  occupants. 

f  To  what  extent  the  importation  of  slaves  in  the  United  States  is  now 
carried,  we  are  ignorant.  In  1819,  Mr.  Middleton  of  South  Carolina,  stated 
on  the  floor  of  Congress,  that,  in  his  opinion,  13,000  Africans  were  annually 
smuggled  into  the  Southern  States.  Mr.  Wright  of  Virginia,  estimated  the 
number  at  15.000. 

6* 


62  JAY'S  WORKS. 

But  in  what  way  does  the  Society  expect  to  destroy  this  com 
merce  ?  By  planting  colonies  of  ignorant  and  depraved  negroes 
on  the  African  coast.  Every  slave  factory  is  of  itself  a  colony, 
and  for  the  most  part,  of  intelligent  white  men ;  and  yet  it  is 
supposed,  that  negro  colonists,  who,  when  in  America,  were  "  the 
most  depraved  of  the  human  race,"  will  be  too  virtuous  to  yield 
to  the  temptations  of  a  lucrative  commerce.  Why  should  the 
free  negroes  of  America,  who  Mr.  Clay  assures  us,  are  "  of  all 
descriptions  of  our  population,  the  most  corrupt,  depraved,  and 
abandoned,"  have,  when  removed  to  Liberia,  a  greater  abhor 
rence  for  the  iniquity  of  the  slave-trade,  than  their  brethren  of 
Sierra  Leone  ?  If  the  trade  has  been  actually  promoted  by  the 
latter  colony,  why  will  it  be  suppressed  by  the  former  ? 

"  The  acting  Attorney  General  at  Sierra  Leone  declared,  1812,  on 
the  trial  of  certain  persons  for  the  infraction  of  the  British  abolition 
laws,  that  the  town  of  Sierra  Leone  was  '  the  heart  from  which  all  the 
arteries  and  veins  of  the  slave-trading  system,  had  for  years  been  ani 
mated  and  supplied.'"  Dr.  Thorpe's  Views  of  the  present  Increase  of 
the  Slave-trade,  p.  71. 

The  following  facts  are  gathered  from  documents  published 
by  the  British  Parliament  in  1832.  Chief  Justice  Jeffcott,  of 
Sierra  Leone,  in  1830,  delivered  a  charge  to  the  Grand  Jury, 
in  which  he  declared  that  he  had  received  credible  information, 
that  persons  in  the  colony  were  engaged  in  aiding  and  abetting 
the  slave-trade,  and  fitting  out  ships  for  the  trade.  He  asserted, 
that  the  colony  "  established  for  the  express  purpose  of  suppress 
ing  this  vile  traffic,  was  made  a  mart  for  carrying  it  on"  He 
also  stated,  that  within  the  last  ten  years,  twenty-two  thousand 
Africans  had  been  located  in  the  colony  by  the  British  Govern 
ment,  at  an  expense  of  nearly  seven  millions  sterling,  and  that 
now  there  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  colony  above  seventeen 
or  eighteen  thousand  men  I  These  extraordinary  and  appall 
ing  declarations  attracted  the  attention  of  the  British  Gov 
ernment,  who  appointed  a  Commission  to  inquire  into  their 
truth.  The  Commissioners,  in  their  report  dated  the  26th  of 
October  of  the  same  year,  state  that,  from  the  testimony  taken 
before  them,  "  they  cannot  but  conclude  that  the  nefarious  sys- 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  63 

tern  of  kidnapping  has  prevailed  in  this  colony  to  a  much  greater 
extent  than  was  even  alluded  to  in  the  charge  of  the  Chief  Jus 
tice."  From  the  testimony  published  with  the  report,  it  appears 
that  the  slave-vessels  are  in  the  habit  of  bringing  out  specie, 
for  the  purchase  of  supplies  on  the  coast ;  and  that  "  Mr.  Hilary 
Teague,  who  resides  at  the  American  settlement  at  Liberia,  at 
Cape  Mesurado,  near  the  Gallinas,  and  who  trades  between 
that  place  (Gallinas,  a  slave-factory)  and  Sierra  Leone,  pur 
chasing  some  goods  from  a  Mr.  Lake,  a  merchant  in  the  colony, 
produced  a  bag  containing  about  one  thousand  dollars,  on  which 
was  marked  the  name  of  the  Spanish  schooner  Manzanares. 
This  vessel  took  in  her  cargo  at  the  Gallinas,  and  was  subse 
quently  condemned  as  a  slave-ship." 

Here  we  find  a  colonist  of  Liberia  trading  at  a  slave-factory, 
and  afterwards  exhibiting  1000  dollars  in  specie,  received  in  all 
human  probability  from  a  slave-ship.  It  is  surely  unreasonable  to 
suppose  that  petty  colonial  merchants  will  refuse  to  sell  supplies  to 
slave-ships  for  specie.  Indeed,  every  new  colony  on  the  coast, 
will,  while  slavery  continues,  give  new  facilities  to  this  accursed 
commerce  ;  nor  can  the  government  at  home  prevent  avaricious 
and  unprincipled  colonists  from  participating  in  it.  No  one  can 
question  the  desire  of  Great  Britain  to  purge  Sierra  Leone  of 
this  enormity,  and  yet  we  find  the  following  statement  in  the 
English  Monthly  Review,  for  May,  1833.  "  One  of  the  school 
masters  in  Sierra  Leone  has  been  tried  for  selling  some  of  his 
scholars.  There  were  lately  upwards  of  one  hundred  liberated 
Africans,  who  were  kidnapped  from  Sierra  Leone,  and  were 
conveyed  to  a  place  near  the  banks  of  the  river  Pongos.  Here 
they  were  detained,  till  an  opportunity  occurred  of  re-shipping 
them  as  slaves." 


64  JAY'S  WORKS. 

CHAPTER    IV. 

INFLUENCE      OF    THE     COLONIZATION     SOCIETY     ON    AFRICA 

DIFFUSION    OF    CIVILIZATION    AND    CHRISTIANITY. 

ALTHOUGH  the  Society  is  not  a  missionary  institution,  builds 
no  churches,  employs  no  ministers,  and  distributes  no  Bibles  or 
tracts,  yet  it  has  persuaded  the  public  that  Liberia  is  a  mission 
ary  establishment,  and  the  radiating  point  from  which  a  flood  of 
light  and  holiness  is  to  spread  over  Africa.  So  confidently  and 
constantly  has  the  missionary  influence  of  the  Society  been 
asserted,  that  many  of  the  members  unfeignedly  believe  it,  and 
their  contributions  are  lavished,  and  their  prayers  are  offered 
for  the  regeneration  of  Africa  by  emigrants,  who,  when  in  the 
United  States,  were  denounced  as  "  a  curse  and  contagion  wher 
ever  they  reside."  Let  us  attend  to  the  stupendous  objects  the 
Society  proposes  to  accomplish. 

"  It  would  illuminate  a  CONTINENT.  It  would  publish  the  name  of 
Christ  on  the  dark  mountains  of  Africa,  and  the  burning  sands  of  the 
desert.  It  would  kindle  up  holiness  and  hope  among  uncounted  tribes, 
whose  souls  are  as  black  with  crime  and  misery,  as  are  the  forms  of 
matter  that  veil  them."  Afr.  Rep.,  I,  164  —  Editorial. 

"  The  little  band  at  Liberia,  who  are  spreading  over  the  wilderness 
around  them  a  strange  aspect  of  life  and  beauty,  are  in  every  sense  a 
missionary  station.  Every  ship  freighted  from  our  shores  with  their 
suffering  kindred,  will  be  freighted  also  with  the  heralds  of  the  cross. 
You  will  see  the  light  breaking  in  upon  one  and  another  dark  habita 
tion  of  cruelty.  The  night  of  heathenism  will  depart.  One  tribe  after 
another  will  come  to  the  light  of  Zion,  and  the  brightness  of  her  rising. 
Ethiopia  will  awake  and  rise  from  the  dust,  and  look  abroad  on  the 
day  and  stretch  forth  her  hand  to  God.  The  light  will  spread  and 
kindle  and  brighten  till  ALL  THE  FIFTY  MILLIONS  of  Africa  are 
brought  to  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God."  Address  to  the 
Kentucky  Col.  Society  by  Mr.  Breckenridge. 

"  They  (the  emigrants)  go  to  unchain  MILLIONS  of  slaves  fettered 
in  the  bondage  of  death."  Afr.  Rep.,  IX,  198. 

"  Like  the  star  in  the  East,  which  announced  the  Saviour  to  the 
astonished  Magi,  it  (the  Society)  points  to  the  advent  of  the  same 
Redeemer,  coming  in  the  power  of  his  Spirit  to  roll  away  the  darkness 
of  a  thousand  generations."  Speech  of  Mr.  Frelinghuysen,  Vice 
President. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY  65 

"  This  Society  proposes  to  add  another  regenerated  CONTINENT  to 
our  globe,  and  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY  MILLIONS  to  the  family  of 
civilized  man."  Speech  of  Elliot  Cresson  before  the  Society.  African 
Rep.,  IX,  360. 

The  number  of  agents  to  be  employed,  are  proportioned  to 
the  mighty  work  to  be  achieved. 

"  The  Society  proposes  to  send  out  not  one  or  two  pious  members  of 
Christianity  into  a  foreign  land,  but  to  transport  annually,  for  an  indefi 
nite  number  of  years  in  one  view  of  its  scheme,  6,000,  in  another 
56,000  missionaries  of  the  descendants  of  Africa  itself,  to  communicate 
the  beaipfits  of  our  religion  and  the  arts."  Mr.  Clay's  Speech  before 
Kentucky  Col.  Society.  Afr.  Rep.,  VI,  24. 

It  will  be  observed  that  these  missionaries  are  to  communicate 
the  benefits  of  both  religion  and  the  arts,  and  they  are  to  be 
taken  from  two  classes.  The  6,000  are  to  be  the  annual  increase 
of  the  free  negroes;  the  56,000  are  to  be  manumitted  slaves. 
The  character  of  the  first  class  is  thus  given  by  Mr.  Clay,  in  the 
same  speech  in  which  he  proposes  their  employment : 

"  Of  all  descriptions  of  our  population,  and  of  either  portion  of  the 
African  race,  the  free  people  of  color  are  by  far,  as  a  class,  the  most 
corrupt,  depraved,  and  abandoned." 

As  this  seems  rather  an  unpromising  character  for  teachers  of 
religion,  we  presume  this  portion  are  to  be  confined  to  instruction 
in  the  arts  ;  and  that  the  explanation  of  religious  mysteries,  and 
the  inculcation  of  moral  duties,  are  to  be  entrusted  to  the  56,000 
just  released  from  bondage.  Of  the  peculiar  opportunities 
afforded  them  by  the  laws  of  the  slave  States,  for  fitting  them 
selves  for  their  new  vocation,  we  may  speak  hereafter.  Of  this 
"  great  company  of  preachers,"  about  three  thousand  have  already 
set  up  their  tabernacle  at  Liberia.  We  might  naturally  suppose, 
that  a  colony  of  missionaries  would  be  "  a  holy  city,"  a  sort  of 
New  Jerusalem,  and  such  we  are  assured  it  is.  We  have  heard 
of  "the  poetry  of  philanthropy,"  as  applied  to  the  sympathy 
expressed  by  abolitionists  for  the  sufferings  of  the  slaves  ;  the 
following  extracts  prove  that  there  is  a  poetry  of  colonization 

which 

"  Can  give  to  airy  nothing 
A  local  habitation  and  a  name." 


GG  JAY'S  WORKS. 

"  It  (the  colony)  is  already  to  the  African  tribes  like  a  city  set  upon 
a  hill,  which  cannot  be  hid.  A  thousand  barbarians,  who  have  long 
made  merchandise  of  their  brethren,  and  been  regarded  themselves  as 
the  objects  of  a  bloody  and  accursed  traffic,  come  within  its  gates,  and 
are  taught  the  doctrine  of  immortality,  —  the  religion  of  the  Son  of  God." 
8th  Report,  p.  14.— 1825. 

Here  we  have  a  solemn  and  official  annunciation  by  the  Board 
of  Managers,  of  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  facts  ever 
recorded  in  the  annals  of  missionary  exertions.  It  appears  from 
official  documents,  that  at  the  date  of  this  report,  the  whole 
number  of  emigrants  could  not  have  been  more  than  242,  and 
had  probably  been  reduced  by  death  below  that  number ;  and  of 
this  ivumber,  a  large  portion  were,  of  course,  women  and  chil 
dren.  Yet  this  little  band  of  Christian  missionaries,  just 
escaped  from  the  ignorance  and  vice  in  which  they  had  been 
enveloped  in  America,  and  still  struggling  for  existence  in  a 
sickly  climate,  and  amid  all  the  hardships  and  privations  of  a 
recent  settlement  in  a  savage  land ;  casting  aside  the  fear  of  man, 
and  with  a  faith  almost  miraculous  in  divine  protection,  admit 
within  their  gates  an  army  of  barbarians,  four  times  the  number 
of  the  whole  of  their  little  community,  —  barbarians  too,  who  had 
long  been  engaged  in  a  bloody  and  accursed  traffic,  making  mer 
chandise  of  their  brethren ;  and  these  barbarians,  suddenly 
divested  of  their  savage  character,  sit  humbly  at  the  feet  of  the 
newly-arrived  messengers  of  Heaven,  and  the  natives  of  Africa 
receive  instruction  in  the  doctrine  of  immortality  and  the  reli 
gion  of  the  Son  of  God,  from  lips  that  had  never  uttered  any 
other  language  than  broken  English  !  It  is  singular  that  in  the 
subsequent  documents  of  the  Society,  we  hear  nothing  farther  of 
these  thousand  barbarians.  How  many  became  converts  to  the 
religion  in  which  they  were  instructed ;  how  long  their  attendance 
on  the  missionaries  were  continued,  and  why  it  was  afterwards 
totally  suspended,  are  points  on  which  no  information  has  been 
vouchsafed  to  us. 

It  is  natural  we  should  wish  to  know  more  of  these  wonderful 
teachers,  and  fortunately  we  are  presented  with  the  following 
picture  of  them  by  an  eye-witness. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  67 

"  The  holy  Author  of  our  religion  and  salvation  has  made  the  hearts 
of  a  large  proportion  of  these  people,  the  temples  of  the  Divine  Spirit. 
I  have  seen  the  proudest  and  profanest  foreigners  that  ever  visited  the 
colony,  trembling  with  amazement  and  conviction,  almost  literally  in 
the  descriptive  phraseology  of  St.  Paul,  find  the  secrets  of  their  hearts 
made  manifest,  and  falling  down  upon  their  faces,  worship  God,  and 
report  that  God  is  in  the  midst  of  these  people  of  a  truth."  Ashmun's 
letter,  Zlst  December,  1825.  A/r.  Rep.,  II,  90. 

We  should  certainly  conclude  from  these  accounts,  that  these 
holy  men  were  blessed  with 

"  Composed  desires,  affections  ever  even, 
Tears  that  delight,  and  sighs  that  waft  to  Heaven." 

Yet  strange  to  tell,  we  are  presented  with  the  following  perplex 
ing  statement,  by  the  same  eye-witness  : 

"  About  twelve  months  since  it  (the  colony)  had  entirely  given  way, 
as  the  committee  are  but  too  well  apprised,  to  a  blind  and  furious 
excitement  of  the  worst  passions,  caused  by  a  somewhat  unfortunate 
policy  operating  on  ignorance  and  invincible  prejudice.  During  my 
absence  for  health,  the  people  were  obliged  to  taste  some  of  the  bitter 
fruits  of  anarchy,  and  by  the  singular  mercy  of  God,  only  escaped 
those  tragedies  of  blood,  which  can  find  no  modern  parallel  but  in  the 
history  of  the  civil  murders  and  devastations  of  St.  Domingo."  Ash- 
mun's  letter,  15th  January,  1825.  Afr.  Rep.,  I,  23. 

The  excitement  here  alluded  to,  and  its  unhappy  consequences, 
occurred,  it  will  be  seen  by  a  comparison  of  dates,  in  1824 ; 
and  that  wonderful  moral  change,  which  rendered  the  hearts  of 
a  large  proportion  of  these  people  the  temples  of  the  Divine 
Spirit,  must  have  been  effected  in  1825.  Yet  it  was  in  the 
beginning  of  1825,  that  the  managers  announced  at  their  annual 
meeting  at  Washington,  the  marvellous  fact  of  the  instruction 
of  the  thousand  barbarians  within  the  gates  of  the  colony,  a  fact 
which  of  course  must  have  happened  several  months  previous 
to  the  date  of  the  report,  and  consequently  during  or  about  the 
time  of  the  "  furious  excitement ! " 

In  March,  1825,  the  editor  of  the  African  Repository  gives 
us  the  following  delightful  intelligence  : 

','  The  eye  of  the  stranger  is  struck  with  the  religious  aspect  of  the 
settlement.  He  beholds  on  Cape  Montserado,  standing  in  lonely 
beauty,  a  Christian  village.  There  flourish  the  virtues  of  the  gospel, 
defended  by  the  Almighty  from  the  influences  of  paganism,  cherished 
and  refreshed  by  the  dews  of  his  grace."  Afr.  Rep.,  I,  5. 


68  JAY'S  WORKS. 

The  secret  of  this  surprising  exhibition  of  Christian  loveliness 
and  purity,  is  thus  explained : 

"It  is  well  known  that  this  little  community  is  made  up  of  SELECTED 
INDIVIDUALS,  and  that  the  Board  have  ever  required  of  those  seeking 
their  patronage,  satisfactory  evidence  that  their  morals  were  pure  and 
their  habits  industrious.  Hence  this  settlement  has  from  its  origin  ex 
hibited  great  decency  and  sobriety,  respect  for  the  Sabbath,  and  the 
other  peculiar  duties  and  ordinances  of  our  religion.  It  has  thus  shed 
a  benign  and  sacred  light  upon  the  heathen,  and  the  feelings  of  the 
profane  and  lawless  stranger  as  he  treads  upon  Cape  Montserado,  are 
subdued  into  unwonted  seriousness."  Afr.  Hep.,  IX,  p.  19,  1826. 

But  again  we  are  perplexed  by  the  assertion  of  the  Governor 
of  the  colony. 

"  For  at  least  two  years  to  come,  a  much  more  discriminating  selec 
tion  of  settlers  must  be  made  than  EVER  HAS  BEEN — even  in  the  first 
and  second  expeditions  by  the  Elizabeth  and  Nautilus  in  1820  and 
1822 — or  the  prosperity  of  the  colony  will  inevitably  and  rapidly  de 
cline."  Ashmun's  Letter,  3d  of  March,  1828.  Afr.  Rep.,  IV,  8G. 

In  the  llth  Report  the  managers  assure  us  : 

"  No  village  perhaps,  in  our  own  land,  exhibits  less  which  is  offen 
sive,  and  more  that  is  gratifying  to  the  eye  of  the  Christian,  than 
the  village  of  Monrovia.  Crimes  are  almost  unknown,  and  the  uni 
versal  respect  manifested  for  the  Sabbath,  and  the  various  institutions 
and  duties  of  Christianity,  have  struck  the  natives  with  surprise,  and 
excited  the  admiration  of  foreigners."  Afr.  Rep.,  XI,  p.  14,  1828. 

But'  how  are  we  to  reconcile  this  with  the  following  state 
ments  ? 

"  Permit  me  to  say,  sir,  there  must  be  a  great  revolution  in  this  colony, 
before  it  can  have  a  salutary  influence  on  the  surrounding  natives ; 
that  is,  before  it  can  have  a  moral  influence  over  them."  Letter  from 
Rev.  G.  M.  Erskine,  3d  of  April,  1830.  Afr.  Rep.,  VI,  121. 

"  We  stand  in  much  need  of  a  work-house  and  some  acres  of  land 
enclosed,  for  confining  licentious  females,  and  other  disorderly  and 
lazy  persons."  Letter  from  A.  D.  Williams,  Agent,  10th  of  Sept.,  1830. 
Afr.  Rep.,  VI,  275. 

"  There  are  several  enterprising  merchants  here.  It  is  not,  how 
ever,  a  favorable  spot  for  small  storekeepers  and  wandering  pedlars, 
who,  I  am  told,  generally  become  stripped  of  what  they  may  have  got, 
and  in  wandering  about  in  the  interior  for  small  traffic,  disgust  the 
natives  by  their  immoralities."  Letter  from  Lieut.  Page  to  Sec.  of  Navy, 
9th  of  April,  1832.  Afr.  Rep.,  VIII,  141. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  69 

"  With  respect  to  the  character  of  the  people  composing  this  expe 
dition,  I  regret  to  be  compelled  to  state,  that  they  are,  with  the  excep 
tion  of  the  Pages  from  Virginia,  and  a  few  others,  the  lowest  and  most 
abandoned  of  their  class.  Our  respectable  colonists  themselves  are 
becoming  alarmed  at  the  great  number  of  ignorant  and  abandoned 
characters  that  have  arrived  here  within  the  last  twelve  months." 
Letter  from  Dr.  Mechlin,  Agent,  Sept.,  1832.  Afr.  Rep.,  VIII,  298. 

"  Let  them  (the  friends  of  the  Society  in  America)  know,  that  to  ex 
tend  knowledge  and  promote  sound  piety,  a  quire  of  paper  is  at  the 
present  moment  of  more  worth  than  a  Bible.  Bibles  and  tracts  have 
been  sent  here,  and  either  used  as  waste  paper,  or  made  food  for 
worms.  Why  ?  Not  because  the  people  despise  either,  but  because  we 
have  not  a  reading  population.  Until  this  is  secured,  Bibles  would  ~be 
of  more  value  in  China"  Letter  from  J.  B.  Pinney,  Agent,  1th  of 
March,  1834. 

On  the  17th  of  June,  1833,  Mr.  Gurley,  Secretary  of  the  So 
ciety,  in  a  speech  at  a  colonization  meeting  in  New  York,  haz 
arded  the  following  most  extraordinary  assertion,  —  "TEN  THOU 
SAND  NATIVES  had  placed  themselves  under  the  protection  of 
the  colony,  receiving  from  it  instruction  in  civilization." 

The  Society,  at  its  annual  meeting  on  the  20th  of  January, 
1834,  unanimously 

"  Resolved,  that  this  Society  is  cheered  in  its  enterprise  by  the  benefi 
cent  effects  which  its  operations  have  upon  the  natives  of  Africa  it 
self."  Afr.  Rep.,  IX,  360. 

On  the  20th  of  February,  1834,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Pinney,  Agent 
at  Liberia,  thus  writes  from  the  colony : 

"  The  colonists  are  very  ignorant  of  everything  about  the  interior. 
Except  the  tribes  along  the  coast,  nothing  at  all  is  known,  and  of  them, 
little  but  their  manner  of  traffic.  Nothing  has  been  done  for  the  natives 
hitherto  by  the  colonists,  except  to  educate  a  few  who  were  in  their 
families  in  the  capacity  of  servants." 

Mr.  Pinney  appears  not  to  have  been  acquainted  with  the 
fact,  that  "  a  thousand  barbarians  "  had  been  taught  the  doctrine 
of  immortality  within  the  gates  of  the  colony^  or  that  "  ten  thou 
sand  natives  "  had  received  instruction  in  civilization ! 

Had  any  missionary  society  been  guilty  of  such  extravagant 
anticipations  and  such  gross  and  palpable  contradictions,  the 
whole  community  would  have  joined  in  loading  it  with  ridicule 
and  odium. 


70  JAY'S  WORKS. 

It  is  deeply  to  be  regretted  that  some  distinguished  coloniza- 
tionists  have  of  late  attempted  to  lead  the  public  to  hope  that 
in  future  no  emigrants  but  such  as  are  of  good  moral  character 
will  be  permitted  to  go  to  Liberia.  It  is  difficult  to  reconcile 
such  an  attempt  with  moral  rectitude,  unless  it  be  accompanied 
with  a  total  and  avowed  abandonment  of  colonization  as  a  means 
of  relieving  the  country  from  the  nuisance  of  a  free  colored  pop 
ulation,  and  from  the  guilt  and  curse  of  slavery.  Of  the  gross 
inconsistency,  (not  to  use  a  harsher  term,)  of  colonizationists 
on  this  subject,  the  proceedings  of  a  colonization  meeting  in 
Cincinnati,  October  31st,  1834,  afford  a  striking  example.  On 
motion  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Beecher,  the  following  resolution  was 
unanimously  adopted : 

"  Resolved,  that  the  establishment  of  colonies  in  Africa  by  the  selec 
tion  of  colored  persons  who  are  moral,  industrious,  and  temperate,  is 
eminently  calculated  of  itself  to  advance  the  cause  of  civilization  and 
religion  among  the  benighted  native  population  of  that  continent ;  as 
well  as  to  afford  facilities  to  the  various  missionary  societies  for  the 
prosecution  of  their  pious  designs." 

This  resolution  would  be  utterly  without  point  or  meaning, 
were  it  not  laudatory  of  the  plans  of  the  Colonization  Society  ; 
and  no  person  of  common  intelligence  would  conjecture  from 
the  resolution,  that  the  "  selection  "  mentioned  in  it  was  utterly 
at  variance  with,  and  directly  opposed  to,  the  avowed  objects  of 
the  Society.  Slavery  in  our  country  cannot  be  abolished  by 
colonization,  without  removing  more  than  two  millions  of  slaves ; 
and  how  is  it  possible  to  remove  this  number,  and  yet  select  for 
colonists  only  "  the  moral,  industrious,  and  temperate  ?  "  Nev 
ertheless,  the  meeting 

"  Resolved,  that  the  friends  of  humanity  and  the  friends  of  God 
should  cherish  the  Colonization  Society,  because  of  its  influence  TO 
ABOLISH  SLAVERY,  and  advance  the  best  interests  of  the  African 
race," 

Pages  might  be  quoted  to  show  that  the  professed  ultimate 
object  of  the  Society,  is  to  remove  the  whole  colored  population 
to  Africa,  without  any  selection  whatever.  In  1824,  a  Commit 
tee  of  the  Board,  in  an  official  report,  declared  that  the  national 
interest 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  71 

"  Required  that  the  whole  mass  of  free  persons  of  color,  and  those 
who  may  become  such  with  the  consent  of  their  owners,  should  be 
progressively  removed  from  us  as  fast  as  their  own  consent  can  be 
obtained,  and  as  the  means  can  be  found  for  their  removal  and  for  their 
proper  establishment  in  Africa."  Afr.  Rep.,  VII,  p.  113. 

"  But  the  Colonization  Society  hopes  for,  and  aims  at  much  more — 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  the  removal  of  ALL  the  black  people 
from  the  United  States."  Proceedings  of  New  York  Col.  Soc.,  2d 
Anniversary. 

"We  have  remarked  that  EXPEDIENCY  is  unhappily  the  gov 
erning  principle  of  the  Society,  and  to  this  principle  must  be 
attributed  the  recent  talk  about  select  emigrants. 

Funds  are  low,  and  temperance  is  popular,  and  all  at  once  we 
hear  that  the  colonies  in  Liberia  are  to  be  temperance  colonies ; 
and  that  the  emigrants  are  to  be  "  moral,  industrious,  and  tem 
perate."  And  so  we  are  to  send  the  good  negroes  away,  and 
keep  the  bad  at  home.  And  yet,  by  transporting  the  few  moral, 
industrious  and  temperate  individuals  that  can  be  selected  in 
a  vicious  and  ignorant  population  of  between  two  or  three  mil 
lions,  we  are  to  abolish  slavery !  Surely  colonizationists,  by 
holding  such  language,  pay  but  a  poor  compliment  to  their  own 
candor,  or  the  common  sense  of  the  community.  The  truth  is, 
there  never  lias  been,  and  never  will  be,  a  selection  made.* 
The  two  last  cargoes  sent  by  the  Society,  were,  by  the  public 
confession  of  Mr.  Breckenridge,  "  two  cargoes  of  vagabonds." 

*  Since  the  first  edition  of  this  work,  a  public  meeting  has  been  held,  (17th 
March,)  in  New  Orleans,  preparatory  to  the  departure  of  some  manumitted 
slaves  to  Africa.  At  this  meeting,  the  intended  emigrants  were  arrayed  before 
the  audience,  and  the  agent  of  the  American  Colonization  Society  informed 
them  that  the  Society  was  "  unalterably  determined  to  send  to  the  colony  none 
but  such  as  are  willing  to  pledge  themselves  to  total  abstinence  from  ardent 
spirits."  He  also  announced  that  one  negro  had  been  rejected  as  an  emi 
grant  "  on  account  of  his  habits  of  intoxication."  A  pledge  was  then  read 
to  the  negroes,  and  they  were  ordered  to  signify  their  assent  by  rising,  which 
they  accordingly  did.  See  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce,  1st  of  April, 
1835. 

This  New  Orleans  scene  will  afford  no  gratification  to  the  friends  of  tem 
perance  ;  nor  will  it  permanently  advance  the  cause  of  colonization.  In  a 
population  universally  addicted  to  intoxication,  ONE  is  selected  as  a  public 
example  of  the  abhorrence  of  the  Society  to  drunkenness,  and  is  shut  out 
from  the  promised  land,  not  for  refusing  to  take  the  pledge,  but  on  account 
of  his  intemperate  habits  ;  while  his  companions  are  required  to  promise  total 
abstinence,  under  the  penalty  of  spending  their  lives  in  bondage. 

If  the  Society  wishes  to  promote  temperance,  instead  of  extorting  pledges 
from  miserable  slaves,  let  them  exercise  the  power  they  possess  of  excluding 
all  intoxicating  liquors  from  their  colony. 


72  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Will  it  be  pretended  that  all  the  coercion  exerted  to  induce  the 
blacks  to  emigrate,  operates  only  on  the  good  ?  or  that  it  is  the 
drunken  and  profligate  who  find  favor  in  the  eyes  of  coloniza 
tionists,  and  are  permitted  to  remain  in  peace  and  quietness  at 
home? 

The  Society  itself  has  borne  abundant  testimony  to  the 
depravity  of  the  free  blacks,  and  its  friends,  with  scarcely  an 
exception,  zealously  maintain  that  the  slaves  are  unfit  for  free 
dom  ;  and  yet,  as  we  have  seen,  it  is  proposed  to  transport  them 
all  to  Africa.  And  now  we  would  ask,  on  what  principle  of 
common  sense,  on  what  record  of  experience  does  the  Society 
expect  that  a  population,  which,  in  a  land  of  Bibles  and  churches, 
is  sunk  in  vice  and  ignorance,  will,  when  landed  on  the  shores 
of  Africa,  and  immersed  in  all  the  darkness  of  paganism,  become 
on  a  sudden  a  Christian  society,  and  employed  in  teaching 
thousands  of  barbarians  "  the  doctrine  of  immortality,  the  religion 
of  the  Son  of  God!" 

Pious  colonizationists  would  themselves  be  shocked  at  the 
proposal  of  disgorging  on  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  the  tenants 
of  our  prisons,  under  the  pretext  of  instructing  the  natives  in 
"  religion  and  the  arts ; "  and  yet  they  flatter  themselves  that 
emigrants,  who,  by  their  own  showing,  are  less  intelligent,  and 
scarcely  less  guilty  than  our  prisoners,  will,  by  undergoing  a  salt 
water  baptism,  land  in  Africa  wholly  regenerated,  and  qualified, 
as  heralds  of  the  cross,  to  convert  millions  and  millions  to  the 
faith  of  the  Gospel.  So  monstrous  an  absurdity  can  be  the 
offspring  only  of  a  deep  and  sinful  prejudice.  Hatred  to  the 
bla«ks  can  alone  delude  us  into  the  belief  that  in  banishing  them 
from  our  soil,  we  are  doing  God  service.  Were  it  not  for  this 
hatred,  we  should  feel  and  acknowledge,  that  Christianity  must 
be  propagated  in  Africa,  as  elsewhere,  by  faithful  and  enlight 
ened  missionaries.  If  the'climate  or  other  circumstances  require 
that  such  missionaries  be  of  African  descent,  it  is  our  duty  to 
educate  them  before  we  send  them.  But,  alas,  instead  of 
educating  negroes,  we  wish  to  keep  them  in  ignorance,  and  yet 
pretend  that  our  nuisances  will,  in  Africa,  be  converted  into 
blessings.  But  if  colonizationists  are  so  perverse  as  to  believe 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  73 

that  a  bitter  fountain  will  send  forth  sweet  waters,  let  them 
contemplate  the  following  picture  of  Sierra  Leone,  drawn  by  a 
devoted  friend  to  the  Society : 

"  Including  the  suburbs  of  the  town,  (Free  Town,)  there  are  some 
six  or  eight  thousand  inhabitants,  about  eighty  of  whom  are  white. 
The  morals  of  Free  Town  are  fearfully  bad.  As  in  colonies,  too 
generally  where  the  restraints  of  home,  of  friends,  of  those  we  love, 
and  those  we  fear,  are  broken  off,  licentiousness  prevails  to  a  most 
lamentable  degree.  The  abomination  is  not  committed  under  the 
cover  of  midnight,  nor  am  I  speaking  of  the  natives  whose  early  habits 
might  plead  some  apology  for  them ;  it  is  done  at  noonday,  and  to  use 
a  figure,  the  throne  as  well  the  footstool  has  participated  in  the  evil ; 
and  the  evil,  I  am  told,  is  increasing.  Sanctioned  as  it  is  by  those  who 
take  the  lead  in  the  Society,  and  who  ought  to  form  the  morals  of  the 
colony,  avarice  has  been  added  to  lust,  and  those  who  otherwise  might 
have  been  virtuous,  have  sold  themselves  to  work  wickedness.  Human 
ity  and  philanthropy,  which  have  struggled  so  hard  and  so  long  to  help 
this  degraded  country,  must  weep  and  cover  itself  with  sackcloth,  to  see 
its  best  interests  so  wickedly  perverted."  Letter  from  Rev.  M.  B.  Cox, 
Methodist  Missionary  in  Liberia.  Afr.  Rep.,  IX,  p.  209. 


There  is  still  an  important  consideration  which  does  not  seem 
to  have  engaged  the  attention  of  colonizationists.  It  is  proposed 
to  transport  to  Africa,  our  whole  colored  population,  and  of 
course  to  found  a  mighty  nation  in  Liberia.  But  how  long  will 
this  nation  remain  dependent  on  the  Board  of  Managers  at 
Washington?  Instead  of  millions,  suppose  the  colony  to  be 
only  ten  thousand  strong.  Who  is  to  govern  it,  who  defend  it, 
and  fight  its  battles  ?  Were  the  colony  now  to  declare  indepen 
dence,  how  would  the  Society  reduce  it  to  subjection;  and  if 
not  subjected,  what  becomes  of  the  mighty  plan  of  making  it  the 
receptacle  of  our  slaves  and  free  negroes  ?  Suppose  the  col 
onists,  like  their  brethren  of  Sierra  Leone,  engage  in  the  slave- 
trade,  who  is  to  punish  or  control  them  ?  Suppose  in  time  they 
find  the  influx  of  emigrants  inconvenient,  and  refuse  to  admit 
them,  who  shall  coerce  them  ? 

On  the  whole,  the  system  of  African  colonization  is  full  of 
absurdities,  and  contradictions,  and  evils,  which  are  not  seen 
because  they  are  concealed  by  a  veil  of  prejudice.  •  It  is  a  system 
which  strikingly  exposes  the  folly  of  human  wisdom,  when 

7* 


74  JAY'S  WORKS. 

opposed  to  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  Had  America 
possessed  that  fear  of  the  Lord  which  is  the  beginning  of  true 
wisdom,  slavery  would  long  since  have  ceased  from  among  us, 
and  our  colored  brethren,  treated  with  Christian  kindness, 
instead  of  being  ignorant  and  degraded,  would  have  been  valued 
and  useful  citizens ;  and  our  churches,  instead  of  uniting  to  send 
"  cargoes  of  vagabonds  "  to  Africa,  under  the  guise  of  Christian 
missionaries,  would  have  aided  the  descendants  of  her  sons, 
furnished  by  us  with  all  the  stores  of  human  learning,  and 
selected  for  their  piety  and  zeal,  in  proclaiming  the  glad  tidings 
of  salvation  throughout  that  benighted  continent. 


CHAPTER    V. 


INFLUENCE    OF    THE    SOCIETY    ON    SLAVERY. 

IN  1822,  a  committee  was  appointed  by  a  public  meeting  in 
Boston,  to  report  on  the  character  and  tendency  of  the  American 
Colonization  Society.  The  committee,  in  their  report,  remark : 

"  It  is  only  from  the  belief  which  the  committee  very  cordially  enter 
tain  that  the  active  members  of  the  American  Colonization  Society  are 
perfectly  disposed  to  frame  their  measures  with  reference  to  the  entire 
suppression  of  the  slave-trade,  and  to  a  gradual  and  prudent,  but  COM 
PLETE  EMANCIPATION  of  those  now  held  in  slavery,  that  we  can 
regard  the  Society  as  having  any  claim  upon  the  sympathy  or  assistance 
of  the  people  of  New  England." 

Such  were  the  expectations  by  which  Northern  philanthropists 
were  at  first  induced  to  countenance  the  Society.  There  is 
scarcely  to  be  found  a  colonization  article  or  speech  that  does  not 
warrant  these  expectations,  that  does  not  promise  the  exertion  by 
the  Society  of  a  mighty  MORAL  INFLUENCE  in  abolishing  slavery. 

Now  it  is  obvious  that  such  an  influence  must  operate  in  one 
or  more  of  the  following  ways,  viz. : 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  75 

1.  On  the  conscience  of  the  slave-holder,  convincing  him  that 
slave-holding  is  sinful,  and  that  his  Maker  requires  him  to  lib 
erate  his  slaves. 

2.  On  the  reputation  of  the  slave-holder,  making  him  feel 
that  his  standing  in  the  community  is  lowered  by  keeping  his 
fellow-men  in  bondage,  and  enjoying,  without  compensation,  the 
fruits  of  their  labor. 

3.  On  the  interests  of  the  slave-holder,  persuading  him  that 
emancipation  would  enhance  his  property. 

4.  On  the  fears  of  the  slave-holder,  alarming  him  for  the  safety 
of  himself  and  family. 

5.  By  the  power  of  example,  showing  the  slave-holder,  by  the 
conduct  of  others  whom  he  esteems,  what  his  own  ought  to  be. 

We  flatter  ourselves  that  we  shall  prove  that  the  influence  of 
the  Society  is  in  no  degree  exerted  in  any  one  of  these  ways, 
except  the  last.  Of  the  extent  of  this  last  mode,  we  shall  speak 
hereafter. 

It  will  not  be  pretended  that  the  Society  addresses  itself  to 
the  conscience  of  the  slave-holder.  Such  addresses  are  not 
authorized  by  the  constitution,  and  have  been  repeatedly  dis 
claimed  by  the  Society.  But  when  the  Society  disclaims  appeals 
to  the  conscience,  it  disclaims  the  most  powerful  of  all  means  for 
the  removal  of  slavery. 

"  We  never  made  any  headway,"  says  a  British  writer, "  in  the 
abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  and  of  slavery,  till  it  was  taken  up 
by  the  religious  men,  prosecuted  as  a  concern  of  the  soul,  with 
reference  to  eternity,  and  by  motives  drawn  from  the  cross  of 
Christ." 

Mr.  G.  Smith,  a  most  estimable  officer  of  the  Society,  remarked, 
in  a  temperance  address  :  "  I  never  heard  that  temperance  had 
any  success  any  where,  unless  the  appeals  in  its  favor  were  made 
directly  to  the  consciences  of  the  rum-dealers.  Strike  out  these, 
and  it  is  in  vain  that  you  seek  for  other  means  to  propel  the  tri 
umphant  car  of  temperance.  Hitch  to  that  car,  health,  economy, 
expediency,  the  public  good,  what  you  please,  if  you  leave  out 
the  appeal  to  men's  consciences,  you  have,  as'  we  say  at  the 
North,  a  weak  team"  And  surely  a  more  weak,  broken-winded, 


76  JAY'S  WORKS. 

good-for-nothing  team,  than  colonization,  was  never  hitched  to 
the  car  of  abolition.  How,  and  in  what  direction,  does  this  team 
draw  ?  It  is  amusing  to  observe  how  wary  colonizationists  are 
of  approaching  this  question.  They  dwell  on  the  political  evils 
of  slavery,  and  call  on  religion  and  patriotism  for  aid  in  remov 
ing  them  ;  and  when,  in  breathless  attention,  we  are  waiting  to 
learn  by  what  process  the  moral  influence  of  the  Society  is  to 
deliver  us  from  the  curse  of  slavery,  in  a  moment  the  scene 
shifts  to  Africa,  and  we  are  entertained  with  visions  of  its  future 
bliss  and  glory.  It  may  be  safely  asserted,  that  not  one  coloni 
zation  writer  or  orator  in  a  hundred,  ever  attempts  to  explain 
how  the  Society  is  to  induce  masters  to  liberate  their  slaves. 
Occasionally,  however,  the  effort  is  made.  Mr.  Knapp,  in  a 
speech  before  the  Society,  thus  explains  the  matter : 

"  In  my  opinion,  it  (slavery)  may  be  cured  in  less  time  than  it  has 
been  growing  up.  Open  once  the  facilities  of  emigration  —  show  an 
object  for  it,  and,  like  any  other  business,  it  will  increase  to  any  extent 
we  may  wish.  The  natural  world  has  yielded  her  impossibilities,  as 
they  were  thought,  to  the  efforts  of  enlightened  men ;  why  should  we 
not  be  as  successful  in  the  moral  ?  A  fair  and  permanent  road  is  now 
built  over  the  Alps,  the  passage  of  which  was  once  considered  as  suffi 
cient  to  give  immortality  to  the  successful  adventurer."  Wth  Rep.,  p.  6. 

So,  it  seems,  that  if  we  open  once  the  facilities  of  emigration, 
that  is,  provide  ships,  &c.,  the  planters  will  at  once  call  in  their 
slaves  from  their  cotton  and  sugar  fields,  and  ship  them  to  Afri 
ca  ;  but  why  they  will  do  so,  is  a  problem,  which,  after  all,  Mr. 
Knapp  omits  to  solve. 

"  This  work,  (colonization,)  as  it  advances,  tends  to  improve  the 
character,  and  elevate  the  condition  of  the  free  people  of  color,  and 
thus  to  take  away  one  standing  and  very  influential  argument  against 
both  individual  and  general  abolition.  This,  to  an  unprejudiced  mind, 
is  one  of  the  most  obvious  tendencies  of  African  colonization.  Elevate 
the  character  of  the  free  people  of  color ;  let  it  be  seen  that  they  are 
men  indeed ;  let  the  degrading  associations  which  follow  them  be  broken 
up  by  the  actual  improvement  of  their  character  as  a  people,  and  negro 
slavery  must  wither  and  die."  New  Haven  Christian  Spectator  for 
March,  1833. 

As  the  Society  utterly  disclaims  all  attempts  to  elevate  the 
free  blacks  here,  the  meaning  of  the  above  is,  that  when  the 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  77 

slave-holder  in  America  learns  that  black  men  in  Liberia  are 
intelligent  and  respectable,  he  will  release  his  slaves  from  their 
fetters.  We  wonder  if  similar  intelligence  from  the  West  Indies 
will  produce  the  same  effect ;  if  so,  it  may  be  obtained  at  far 
less  expense  of  time  and  money,  than  from  Africa. 

Let  us  now  attend  to  the  process  by  which  an  excellent  vice 
president  of  the  Society  supposes  slavery  is  to  be  abolished. 

"  Let  Africa  begin  to  enter  upon  the  redemption  of  her  character, 
which  guilty  Christian  nations  have  for  centuries  combined  to  keep 
down  to  the  lowest  point  of  degradation,  and  she  will  begin  to  be 
respected,  and  the  condition  of  her  outcast  children  on  our  shores,  will 
awaken  a  livelier  sympathy.  And  when  Africa  shall  have  put  on  the 
garment  of  civilization,  and  the  influence  of  her  regeneration  shall  be 
felt  throughout  this  land,  our  most  tenacious  and  obstinate  slave-holder 
will  shrink  from  the  relation  he  bears  to  her  children.  The  poor  crea 
ture  whom  he  formerly  regarded  as  a  few  removes  above  the  brute,  will 
now  present  himself  before  the  new  associations  of  his  master's  mind, 
as  his  fellow-man  and  his  equal,  and  the  slave  will  be  permitted  to  go 
free."  Speech  of  G.  Smith,  Esq.,  14th  Rep.,  p.  11. 

It  would  seem,  that  at  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  year  of  the 
Society's  labors,  Africa  had  not  yet,  in  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Smith, 
begun  to  enter  upon  the  redemption  of  her  character.  How 
soon  a  beginning  is  to  be  made,  and  in  how  many  years,  or  cen 
turies,  the  Society  expects  to  complete  the  work  of  dressing 
Africa  in  the  garment  of  civilization,  we  are  not  informed.  But 
when  this  work  shall  have  been  finished,  and  when  it  shall  have 
produced  a  general  sensation  (how  strong  and  of  what  kind  we 
know  not)  throughout  America,  THEN  the  motions  of  the  sugar- 
mill  and  cotton-gin  are  to  be  arrested,  and  the  fetters  are  to  fall 
from  the  slave.  Why  ?  Because  the  commands  of  God,  and  the 
interests  and  safety  of  the  master,  require  it  ?  No ;  but  because 
the  master  will  then  make  the  discovery,  that  his  poor  slave,  but 
little  removed  as  he  is  from  the  brute,  is  still  his  fellow-man  and 
his  equal !  This  is  certainly  a  most  marvellous  process  for 
teaching  the  Southern  planters  a  plain,  simple  truth ;  a  truth, 
too,  which  was  proclaimed  by  their  own  representatives,  so  long 
ago  as  1776,  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  but  which 
unfortunately  seems  not  to  have  had  the  influence  which  Mr. 
Smith  supposes  it  will  exert,  when  taught  by  the  regeneration  of 
Africa. 


78  JAY'S  WORKS. 

We  may  now  judge  a  little  of  the  elements  of  that  moral  in 
fluence  which  a  Christian  Society  exerts  against  slavery.  Con 
science  and  the  word  of  God,  death,  judgment,  and  eternity, 
enter  not  into  its  composition. 

"  The  Society,"  declares  one  of  its  vice  presidents,  "  tends,  and  may 
powerfully  tend,  to  rid  us  gradually  and  entirely  in  the  United  States, 
of  slaves  and  slavery."  R.  G.  Harper.  See  \ktli  Hep.,  p.  23. 

Let  us  now  see  how  gradually  this  riddance  is  to  be  effected. 

"  We  have  never  supposed  that  the  Society's  plan  could  he  accom 
plished  in  a  few  years ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  have  boasted  that  it  will 
demand  a  CENTURY  for  its  fulfilment."  Mr.  Fitzhugh,  Vice  President. 
Afr.  Rep.,  IV,  p.  344- 

It  may  seem  singular  that  philanthropists  should  exult  in  the 
conviction  that  their  plan  for  doing  good  would  require  a  century 
for  its  fulfilment ;  but  the  benevolence  of  the  "  colonization  sys 
tem  "  is  peculiar. 

"  There  are  those,  sir,  who  ask,  '  And  could  not  a  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury  cease  and  determine  these  two  great  evils,'  (free  blacks  and  slaves  ?) 
You  and  I,  my  dear  sir,  on  whom  the  frost  of  time  has  fallen  rather 
perceptibly,  would  say  a  CENTURY."  Speech  of  Mr.  Custiss.  13th 
Rep.,  p.  viii. 

"  The  sudden  abolition  of  slavery  in  a  community  where  it  existed 
to  any  considerable  extent,  would  be  pernicious.  But  this  is  danger 
which  can  occasion  no  alarm,  admitting  that  the  colonization  scheme 
contemplates  the  ultimate  abolition  of  slavery,  yet  that  result  could 
only  be  produced  by  the  slow  and  gradual  operation  of  CENTURIES." 
Afr.  Rep.,  I,  p.  217. 

"  It  is  not  expected  to  remove  so  great  an  evil  as  two  millions  of 
slaves  suddenly :  if  it  can  be  accomplished  in  a  CENTURY,  it  will  be  as 
much  as  the  most  sanguine  of  our  friends  ought  to  expect."  Judge 
Best's  Address  to  the  Indiana  Col.  Soc.  Afr.  Rep.,  IX,  p.  71. 

"  It  is  not  the  work  of  a  day,  nor  a  year ;  it  is  not  the  work  of  one 
time,  nor  of  two ;  but  it  is  one  which  will  now  commence,  and  may 
continue  for  AGES."  View  of  Slavery,  by  Humanitas,  a  Colonization 
advocate.  Baltimore,  1822. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  continuance  of  slavery,  with  all  its 
licentiousness,  ignorance,  and  suffering,  for  at  least  a  century  to 
come,  is  calmly  contemplated  by  zealous  and  distinguished  colon- 
izationists.  But  still  the  Society  expects  ultimately  to  abolish 
slavery.  Let  us  therefore  inquire  what  it  must  effect  to  fulfil 
this  expectation. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  79 

The  increase  of  our  slave  population,  from  the  census  of  1820 
to  that  of  1830,  was  472,568.  Estimating  the  future  increase 
at  the  same  ratio,  it  will  be  for  the  ten  years  ending  in  1840, 
617,263  ;  and  for  the  ten  years  ending  in  1850,  806,762.  The 
annual  increase  is  now  upwards  of  54,000,  and  the  daily  excess 
of  births  over  deaths,  147.  In  1850,  it  will  be  80,676  annually, 
and  221  daily ! 

From  this  statement  it  will  be  perceived  what  must  be  the 
power  of  the  "  moral  influence "  of  the  Society  to  remove  to 
Africa  merely  the  annual  increase  of  our  slave  population ;  and 
henc«  we  may  judge  of  its  ability  to  deliver  the  country  from 
slavery.  In  forming  an  opinion  on  this  subject,  we  shall  be  fur 
ther  aided  by  inquiring  what  advantages  the  Society  has  enjoyed, 
and  what  have  been  the  results  of  its  labors. 

Never  has  any  voluntary  association  received  in  an  equal 
degree  the  applause  and  patronage  of  both  state  and  church. 
Men  of  all  parties,  and  of  all  religions,  and  of  no  religion,  have 
zealously  espoused  its  cause.  On  the  roll  of  its  officers,  are 
emblazoned  the  names  of  the  most  popular  leaders  of  rival  poli 
tical  parties.  The  Legislatures  of  fourteen  States  have  passed 
resolutions  in  its  favor.  The  highest  ecclesiastical  judicatories, 
of  almost  every  religious  denomination,  have  recommended  it  to 
the  patronage  of  their  churches.  Politicians  ha^e  declaimed, 
ministers  have  preached,  and  Christians  have  prayed  in  its  behalf. 
To  promote  its  objects,  liberal  contributions  have  been  made 
from  the  coffers  of  the  nation,  and  the  pockets  of  individuals. 
Under  color  of  providing  for  the  removal  to  Africa,  of  about  three 
hundred  recaptured  negroes,  the  general  government  appro 
priated  130,000  dollars,  which  were  "applied  to  an  object  ami 
iated  to  our  design,  and  essentially,  thoughxcollaterally,  contrib 
uting  to  its  advancement ;  the  sending  out  of  agents  of  the 
United  States  to  the  African  coast,  and  the  transportation  of 
persons  in  the  public  ships.  By  these  means  we  have  obtained, 
in  fact,  all  we  could  have  expected  to  gain,  had  Congress  de 
cided  to  aid  our  enterprise."  Speech  of  Gen.  Harper,  7th  Rep., 
p.  12. 

Since  1820,  $220,449  have  been  poured  into  the  treasury.  If 
to  this  be  added  $45,645,  the  debt  due  by  the  Society  at  the 


80  JAY'S  WORKS. 

beginning  of  1834,  we  have  a  total  of  $266,094  expended,  inde 
pendent  of  the  $130,000  paid  by  government.  Such  have  been 
the  pecuniary  means  of  the  Society ;  and  now  let  us  see  how  far 
its  "  moral  influence  "  has  progressed  in  freeing  the  country  of 
its  millions  of  slaves.  Since  December,  1816,  when  the  Society 
was  organized,  to  the  present  time  (1st  of  January,  1835,)  it 
has  transported  eight  hundred  and  nine  manumitted  slaves  to 
Africa  —  equal  to  the  increase  of  the  slave  population  forjfive  and 
a  half  days  !  But  it  will  be  said  that  some  years  elapsed  before 
the  Society  was  in  a  capacity  to  transport  emigrants.  Be  it  so ; 
let  us  inquire,  then,  how  many  manumitted  slaves  have  been 
sent  out  the  last  Jive  years.  In  1830-'33,  six  hundred  and 
sixty-six  were  transported;  in  1834,  none,*  making  a  removal 
on  an  average,  of  less  than  the  increase  of  one  day  in  each  year  ! 
In  the  eighteenth  year  of  the  Society's  existence,  it  finds  itself 
compelled  to  pause  and  rest,  after  the  mighty  effort  of  arresting 
the  increase  of  the  slave  population  for  FIVE  DAYS  AND  A  HALF. 

Such  are  the  results  of  the  moral  influence  about  which  we 
have  heard  so  much.  And  upon  whom  has  this  influence  oper 
ated  ?  Surely  upon  those  who  were  most  within  its  sphere,  the 
presidents,  vice  presidents,  and  managers  of  the  Society.  Unfor 
tunately,  facts  do  not  confirm  this  very  natural  supposition. 
Judge  Washington  was  President  of  the  Society,  from  its  first 
organization,  till  his  death  in  1829.  In  a  letter  to  the  Society, 
he  observed  :  "  We  may  fairly  hope  it  will  lead  to  the  sure  but 
gradual  abolition  of  slavery."  Afr.  Rep.,  VII,  p.  20. 

Whatever  were  the  hopes  of  this  gentleman,  he  was  personally 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  Society's  moral  influence.  In  a  pub 
lished  letter  in  1821,  after  stating  that  his  slaves,  had  got  the 
idea  that  as  nephew  to  General  Washington,  or  President  of  the 
Colonization  Society,  he  could  not  hold  them  in  bondage,  he 
adds,  "  I  called  the  negroes  together  in  March  last,  and  after 
stating  to  them  what  I  had  heard,  I  assured  them  that  I  had  no 
intention  to  give  freedom  to  any  of  them." 

*  In  1834,  the  Philadelphia  Society  sent  out  one  hundred  and  ten  slaves, 
manumitted  by  the  will  of  their  master,  who  also  left  two  thousand  two 
hundred  dollars  for  their  transportation.  The  Society,  at  the  same  time, 
gave  a  passage  to  fourteen  emigrants  for  the  Parent  Institution,  free  of 
oxpense. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  81 

The  judge  was  as  good  as  his  word.  He  did  indeed  shortly 
after  part  with  fifty-four  of  his  slaves,  but  it  was  not  to  the  agent 
of  the  Society,  to  be  transported  to  Liberia,  but  to  a  slave- 
dealer,  to  be  shipped  to  New  Orleans.  Mr.  Carroll,  a  large 
slave -holder,  succeeded  to  the  presidential  chair,  but  for  aught 
that  appears  to  the  contrary,  neither  he  nor  Mr.  Madison,  the 
present  incumbent,  ever  liberated  a  single  slave.  Mr.  Clay,  a 
vice  president,  publicly  intimated  that  he  did  not  intend  to  send 
his  slaves  to  Africa.  Mr.  Fitzhugh,  another  vice  president,  the 
proprietor  of  "  numerous  slaves,"  speaking  of  slavery,  remarked : 
"No  plea  can  be  urged  in  justification  of  its  continuance  but  the 
plea  of  necessity"  Afr.  Rep.,  V,  p.  354. 

The  will  of  this  gentleman,  who  died  in  1830,  is  a  singular 
comment  on  this  plea  of  necessity.  The  following  extract  is 
given  in  the  African  Repository  under  the  head  of 


PHILANTHROPIC   EXAMPLE. 

"  After  the  year  1850,  I  leave  all  my  negroes  unconditionally  free, 
with  the  privilege  of  having  the  expenses  of  their  removal  to  whatever 
places  of  residence  they  may  select,  defrayed.  If  they  consent  to  go 
to  the  Colony,  (Liberia,)  they  are  to  be  paid  fifty  dollars  each  on  their 
arrival."  Afr.  Rep.,  VI,  247. 

It  will  be  perceived  that  the  testator  believed  in  the  "  neces 
sity  "  of  requiring  his  slaves  to  toil  for  twenty  years  for  his  heirs, 
after  he  himself  was  in  the  grave,  before  they  could  be  permit 
ted  to  labor  for  themselves  ;  and  also  the  necessity  of  leaving 
the  children  who  might  be  born  of  these  slaves  in  the  twenty 
years,  in  interminable  bondage,  for  it  will  be  observed  that  the 
prospective  manumission  is  confined  to  Mr.  Fitzhugh's  "  negroes," 
and  not  to  the  children  to  be  hereafter  born.  Should  this  phil 
anthropic  example  be  universally  followed,  in  how  many  centu 
ries  would  slavery  cease  ? 

Mr.  Custiss,  well  known  as  a  zealous  advocate  of  the  Society, 
in  a  speech  before  it  thus  exclaims : 

"  Lend  us  your  aid  to  strike  the  fetters  from  the  slave,  and  to  spread 
the  enjoyment  of  unfettered  freedom  over  the  whole  of  our  favored 
and  happy  land."  7th  Report,  p.  13. 

8 


82  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Had  Mr.  Custiss  applied  to  the  Board  for  a  passage  for  his 
slaves  to  Liberia,  the  boon  would  unquestionably  have  been 
granted.  But  such  a  boon  was  not  the  aid  he  desired.  In  the 
New  York  Commercial  Advertiser  of  January  31,  1829,  it  is 
stated  that  Philip  Lee,  the  son  of  General  "Washington's  favor 
ite  servant,  is  the  slave  of  Mr.  Custiss,  the  adopted  son  of 
Washington :  that  Philip  is  a  pious,  faithful,  and  in  all  respects 
an  exemplary  man,  and  has  a  wife  and  children,  to  whom  he  is 
tenderly  attached;  and  that  $1,000  are  required  to  deliver 
Philip  and  his  family  from  slavery.  "  Much  interest  has  been 
excited  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  where  it  is  supposed  one 
half  of  the  sum  required  will  be  raised."  The  paper  farther 
states,  that  $121  had  been  subscribed  in  New  York. 

In  the  appendix  at  the  15th  Report,  p.  41,  is  a  list  of  per 
sons  who  have  manumitted  slaves  to  be  sent  to  Liberia.  The 
list  does  not  profess  to  give  all,  but  contains  fifteen  names,  and 
it  is  remarkable  that  the  name  of  any  one  present  or  former 
officer  of  the  American  Colonization  Society  is  not  to  be  found 
among  them,  with  the  exception  of  Mr.  Fitzhugh,  who  is  in 
cluded,  on  account  of  his  testamentary  devise. 

We  will  not  assert  that  no  officer  of  the  Society  has  ever 
parted  with  a  slave  that  he  might  go  to  the  Colony :  but  we  do 
say,  that  although  our  acquaintance  with  colonization  documents 
is  not  superficial,  we  have  met  with  no  record  of  such  a  "  phil 
anthropic  example." 

If  such  be  the  impotency  of  the  moral  influence  of  the  Soci 
ety  upon  its  officers,  its  orators  and  advocates,  what  will  be  its 
power  on  slave-holders  generally  ? 

But  let  us  suppose,  what  we  all  know  to  be  untrue,  that  every 
slave-holder  in  our  country  is  in  very  deed  anxious  to  get  rid  of 
his  slaves,  and  that  the  whole  slave  population  is  now  and  will 
continue  to  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  Society,  and  we  ask,  can 
this  population  be  transported  to  Africa,  and  there  maintained  ? 
We  have  seen  that  before  any  impression  can  be  made  on  its 
present  amount,  its  increase,  rising  to  more  than  fifty-four  thou 
sand  annually,  must  be  removed.  But  it  is  surely  not  to  be  re 
moved,  merely  to  perish  by  famine  in  the  wilderness.  In  the 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  83 

ordinary  calculations  of  the  expense  of  carrying  these  people  to 
Africa,  they  seem  to  be  considered  only  as  articles  of  freight, 
which  are  to  be  delivered  at  Liberia  at  so  much  per  piece. 
Thirty  dollars  are  usually  assumed  as  the  cost  of  a  passage ; 
but  let  it  be  recollected  that  after  they  arrive,  houses,  imple 
ments  of  husbandry,  food  and  clothing  for  at  least  one  year  must 
be  provided  for  them.  It  is  with  difficulty  a  new  colony  can 
provide  for  its  own  maintenance,  and  it  is  folly  to  suppose  that 
it  can  also  provide  for  an  annual  influx  of  fifty  thousand  emi 
grants,  emigrants  too,  sunk  in  brutal  ignorance,  unaccustomed  to 
supply  their  own  wants,  and  bringing  with  them  nothing  but  the 
rags  on  their  backs.  Place  fifty  thousand  such  persons  in  the 
wilds  of  Africa,  and  they  would  be  far  more  likely  to  starve 
before  the  end  of  a  year,  than  they  would  be  at  that  time  to 
furnish  the  necessaries  of  life  to  fifty  thousand  more  emigrants. 
The  Colony  is  now  poor,  and  has  only  about  three  thousand  in 
habitants,  and  it  is  admitted  (see  15th  Rep.,  p.  10,)  that  an  ad 
dition  of  one  thousand  emigrants  in  any  one  year  since  its 
establishment  would  have  been  fatal  to  it.  How  many  years 
then  must  elapse,  before  it  can  receive  fifty-four  thousand  every 
year  ?  and  when  that  period  arrives,  what  will  then  be  the  annu 
al  increase  ?  Admitting  the  whole  marine  and  the  whole  treas 
ury  of  the  United  States  to  be  surrendered  to  the  Society, 
does  any  sane  man  believe  that  Liberia  can  be  brought  to  such 
a  state  of  cultivation  as  to  maintain  an  annual  accession  to  her 
population  of  fifty-four  thousand  in  less  than  twenty-five  years  ? 
But  in  the  year  1860  the  annual  increase  of  slaves,  instead  of 
fifty -four  thousand,  will  be  one  hundred  and  four  thousand ;  and 
unless  the  Society  will  then  be  able  to  transport  more  than  this 
mighty  multitude,  each  year,  it  will  not  even  diminish  the  pres 
ent  amount  of  the  slave  population ! 

In  supposing  the  slave-holders  ready  to  colonize  their  slaves, 
we  have  given  full  effect  to  the  reiterated  assertions  of  coloniza- 
tionists  on  this  subject.  These  gentlemen  are  fond  of  repre 
senting  the  Southern  masters  as  unfortunately  burthened  with  a 
grievous  load,  which  they  are  impatient  to  shake  off;  and  from 
which  no  other  human  agency  than  the  Society  can  possibly 


84  JAY'S  WORKS. 

relieve  them.  Granting  the  premises,  we  see  what  sort  of  re 
lief  the  Society  is  capable  of  affording.  We  have  intentionally 
removed  one  difficulty,  that  we  might  consider  another.  Let  us 
now  reverse  the  supposition,  and  admitting  the  ability  of  the ' 
Society  immediately  to  transport  to  Africa,  and  there  maintain 
all  the  slaves  in  the  United  States,  let  us  inquire  how  the  con 
sent  of  the  masters  is  to  be  obtained. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  Society  has  studiously  avoided 
every  measure  to  obtain  such  consent,  and  boasts  that  it  ad 
dresses  arguments  to  no  master.  But  if  we  are  to  believe  col- 
onizationists,  no  arguments  are  necessary  to  induce  the  masters 
to  liberate  their  slaves.  Our  sympathy  is  perpetually  demanded, 
not  for  the  slave,  but  his  unfortunate  master,  who  is  imploring 
the  Society  to  deliver  him  from  the  curse  entailed  upon  him  by 
his  ancestors  !  So  far  from  slave-holders  wishing  to  abolish  sla 
very,  they  are  endeavoring  to  transmit  it  as  a  precious  inheri 
tance  to  their  latest  posterity.  As  we  have  already  observed, 
we  do  not  solicit  the  reader's  belief,  in  any  assertion  we  may 
make,  until  we  have  demonstrated  its  truth ;  and  we  assert  that 
.  there  is  a  general  disposition  among  slave-holders,  to  perpetuate 
slavery.  We  know,  and  cheerfully  acknowledge,  that  there  are 
exceptions,  but  we  believe  they  are  exceedingly  rare.  The 
whole  tendency  of  slave  legislation  is  to  rivet  the  chains  of  its 
victims.  Hence  the  cruel  obstacles  it  raises  to  manumission, 
and  the  wicked  efforts  it  makes  to  brutalize  the  human  mind. 
But  not  contented  with  holding  their  own  slaves  with  an  iron 
grasp,  they  have  striven,  and  with  woful  success,  to  extend  the 
curse  beyond  their  own  borders.  When  Missouri  was  to  be  ad 
mitted  into  the  Union,  every  slave  representative  in  Congress, 
without  one  solitary  exception,  colonizationist  or  not,  voted  to 
render  it  a  slave  State.  So  anxious  was  Virginia  to  strengthen 
the  slave  interest,  that  rebellion  and  civil  war  were  the  price  she 
was  willing  to  pay  for  another  mart  in  human  flesh.  Her  House 
'of  Delegates 

"  Resolved,  that  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia  will  support  the 
good  people  of  Missouri  in  their  just  rights,  and  admission  into  the 
Union,  and  will  cooperate  with  them  in  RESISTING  WITH  MAMLY 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  85 

FORTITUDE  any  attempt  which  Congress  may  make  to  impose  re 
straints  or  restrictions  on  the  price  of  their  admission,  not  authorized 
by  the  great  principles  of  the  Constitution,  and  in  violation  of  their 
rights,  liberty,  and  HAPPINESS  ! " 

General  Charles  C.  Pinckney,  of  South  Carolina,  in  a  public 
address,  delivered  in  1824,  maintained  that  slavery,  as  it  exists 
in  that  State,  is 

"  No  greater  or  more  unusual  evil  than  befalls  the  poor  in  general ;  that 
its  extinction  would  be  attended  with  calamity  to  the  country,  and  to 
the  people  connected  with  it,  in  every  character  and  relation ;  that  no 
necessity  exists  for  such  extinction ;  that  slavery  is  sanctioned  by  the 
Mosaic  dispensation ;  that  it  is  a  fulfilment  of  the  denunciation  pro 
nounced  against  the  second  son  of  Noah ;  that  it  is  not  inconsistent 
with  the  genius  and  spirit  of  Christianity,  nor  considered  by  St.  Paul 
as  a  moral  evil."  Address  before  the  Agricultural  Society  of  South 
Carolina. 

Governor  Miller,  of  South  Carolina,  in  his  message  to  the 
Legislature  in  1829,  remarks  : 

"  Slavery  is  not  a  national  evil ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  a  NATIONAL 
BENEFIT.  Slavery  exists  in  some  form  every  where,  and  it  is  not  of 
much  consequence,  in  a  philosophical  point  of  view,  whether  it  be  vol 
untary  or  involuntary.  In  a  political  point  of  view,  involuntary  slavery 
has  the  advantage,  since  all  who  enjoy  political  liberty  are  then  in  fact 
free." 

It  gives  us  pleasure  to  state,  that  the  African  Repository  pro 
nounces  the  doctrines  of  Messrs.  Pinckney  and  Miller  "  abom 
inable."  We  have  explained  in  our  introduction  the  tacit  com 
pact  by  which  colonizationists  are  never  to  defend  slavery  in  the 
abstract,  nor  condemn  it  in  particulars.  A  scrupulous  observ 
ance  of  this  compact  enabled  the  Repository  to  exclaim,  with 
great  truth,  when  accused  of  hostility  to  slave-holders, 

"  Have  we  sought  to  render  the  owners  of  slaves  odious,  by  retailing 
anecdotes  of  their  cruelty  ?  Every  honorable  man  will  do  us  the  jus 
tice  to  answer  no."  Afr.  Rep.,  IV,  p.  59. 

But  the  question  is,  not  what  Mr.  Gurley  thinks  of  these  doc 
trines,  but  how  they  are  regarded  by  slave-holders.     Now  there 
is  no  evidence  that  General  Pinckney's  rank  in  Carolina  society 
was  affected  by  his  "  abominable "  doctrines ;  on  the  contrary, 
8* 


86  JAY'S  WORKS. 

judging  from  the  eulogium  pronounced  at  his  decease,  he  was 
regarded  as  one  of  the  most  distinguished  amd.  pious  members  of 
the  slave-holding  community.  And  so  far  were  the  people  of 
Carolina  from  being  offended  by  the  "  abominable  "  doctrines  of 
their  governor,  that  after  his  term  of  service  expired,  they 
elected  him  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

Governor  Hayne,  of  the  same  State,  in  his  message  to  the 
Legislature  (1833,)  labors  to  prove  that  slavery  adds  to  the 
military  strength  of  a  nation,  and  concludes  with  declaring  that 

"  The  existence  of  slavery  in  the  South  is  not  only  to  be  regarded 
as  an  evil  not  to  be  deplored,  but  that  it  brings  along  corresponding  ad 
vantages,  in  elevating  the  character,  contributing  to  the  wealth,  en 
larging  the  resources,  and  adding  to  the  strength  of  the  State  in  which 
it  exists." 

It  must  be  confessed,  these  are  strange  sentiments  to  be  ad 
vanced  by  the  chief  magistrates  of  a  people  who  regard  slavery 
as  a  curse,  and  are  anxious  to  colonize  their  slaves.  Let  us  now 
attend  to  the  official  declarations  of  the  present  Governor  of 
South  Carolina,  and  see  what  comment  they  afford  on  the  sup 
posed  desire  of  the  slave-holders  to  get  rid  of  their  slaves,  a 
supposition  on  which  the  ivhole  theory  of  abolition  by  colonization 
is  founded. 

"It  is  demonstrable  that  cotton  could  not  be  produced  by  the  labor 
of  hired  freemen,  for  double  the  average  price  it  has  commanded  for 
ten  years  past.  It  is  obvious  that  the  "abolition  of  that  kind  of  labor 
which  is  the  basis  of  our  wealth  and  prosperity,  would  annihilate,  at  a 
single  blow,  that  entire  branch  of  foreign  commerce  which  brings 
the  industry  of  the  exporting  States  into  competition  with  that  of 
the  manufacturing  States.  I  am  thoroughly  convinced  that  the 
institution  of  domestic  slavery,  paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  is  an  indis 
pensable  element  in  an  unmixed  representative  republic.  How  SACKED 
is  OUR  OBLIGATION  to  provide  for  our  POSTERITY  all  the  necessary 
means  of.de/ending  and  preserving  an  institution  as  essential  to  their 
existence  and  to  their  liberty,  as  it  is  obnoxious  to  the  prejudices  of 
those  Who  have  the  greatest  possible  facilities  for  assailing  it."  Inau 
gural  Speech,  Dec.,  1834. 

In  December  last,  a  lecture  on  "Domestic  Slavery,"  was 
delivered  before  "  the  Law  Class  of  William  and  Mary  College," 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  87 

and  published  in  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger,  for  January, 
1835.  The  following  introductory  passage  will  help  to  show  the 
feeling  that  is  cherished  at  the  South : 

"  This  subject,  (slavery,)  is  too  interesting  to  be  passed  in  silence. 
The  time  too  is  rife  with  proofs,  that  unless  we  mean  tamely  to  surren 
der  a  most  important  interest,  we  must  hold  ourselves  always  on  the 
alert  to  DEFEND  it  with  tongue  and  pen." 

A  few  years  since,  the  State  of  Louisiana  passed  a  law,  pro 
hibiting  the  importation  of  slaves  from  other  States,  but  the 
extension  of  the  sugar  cultivation  demanding  more  labor,  the  law 
was  repealed  in  1833,  and  this  State  is  now  importing  multitudes 
of  slaves  from  Maryland  and  Virginia.  Soon  after  the  repeal  of 
the  law,  two  thousand  were  offered  for  sale  in  New  Orleans,  in 
the  course  of  a  single  week. 

We  may  judge  how  anxious  the  people  of  Louisiana  are  to 
send  their  slaves  to  Africa,  from  the  following  notice  of  a  late 
sale  in  New  Orleans  : 

Willis,  18  years  old,  brought $1400 

Jack,  29  "  "  1200 

Adam,  20  "  "  - 1300 

Tom,  16  "  "  1175 

Dick,  30  "  "  1000 

Bill,  14  "  "  •  • ; 660 

Malinda,  29  "  »  500 

A  letter  from  an  intelligent  gentleman,  personally  acquainted 
with  the  state  of  slavery  at  Natchez,  says : 

"  The  prospects  of  the  blacks  in  the  South-west,  are  gloomy  in  the 
extreme.  Cotton  can  be  afforded  at  6  cents  per  pound ;  last  year, 
(1832,)  it  was  worth  from  9  to  13  cents;  this  year  it  is  worth  from  14 
to  18  cents.  Last  year  about  1000  negroes  were  sold  in  Natchez,  and 
I  am  confident  1500  will  be  disposed  of  in  that  market  this  year.  In 
my  opinion,  the  slaves,  if  ever  free,  will  owe  their  liberty  to  their  own 
strength  and  the  blessing  of  Heaven ;  for  their  masters,  as  a  Methodist 
minister  once  expressed  it,  think  only  of  making  more  cotton,  to  buy 
more  negroes,  to  make  more  cotton  to  buy  more  negroes." 

So  far  are  masters  from  wishing  to  send  their  negroes  to 
Africa,  that  they  are  continually  increasing  their  stock,  and 


88  JAY'S  WORKS. 

hence  slaves  are  rising  in  value.  A  late  Georgia  paper  an 
nounces,  that  at  a  sale  of  seventy-one  negroes,  of  all  ages  and 
kinds,  the  average  price  was  $438. 

A  convention  has  recently  been  held  in  Tennessee,  for  amend 
ing  the  State  Constitution,  and  one  amendment  is,  a  prohibition 
to  the  Legislature  to  abolish  slavery.  % 

The  Augusta  Chronicle,  (Geo.)  of  Oct.,  1833,  says : 

"  We  firmly  believe,  that  if  the  Southern  States  do  not  quickly  unite 
and  declare  to  the  North,  if  the  question  of  slavery  be  longer  discussed 
in  any  shape,  they  will  instantly  secede  from  the  Union;  that  the 
question  must  be  settled,  and  very  soon,  by  the  SAVORD,  as  the  only 
possible  means  of  self-preservation." 

The  Richmond  Inquirer  and  the  Washington  Globe  are  both 
mightily  indignant  at  the  proposition  that  Congress  should 
abolisn  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

So  far  is  it  from  being  true,  as  stated  by  colonizationists,  that 
the  South  is  ready  to  surrender  its  slaves,  that  every  day  affords 
new  proofs  that  the  public  sentiment  both  at  the  North  and  the 
South,  is  now  more  tolerant  to  slavery  than  at  any  other  period 
during  the  last  thirty  years.  Who  believes  that  even  ten  years 
ago  any  Connecticut  Legislature  would  have  ventured  to  pass 
the  Black  Act  ?  or  that  Judge  Daggett  himself  would  have  pro 
nounced  his  portentous  and  extraordinary  opinion  ?  At  what 
time,  before  the  influence  of  the  Colonization  Society  was  felt 
throughout  our  land,  did  the  citizens  of  the  North  merit  or 
receive  such  commendations  from  the  slave  press  as  the  fol 
lowing  ? 

"  Public  sentiment  at  the  North,  in  reference  to  Southern  interests, 
was  never  in  a  sounder  state  than  it  is  now.  The  language  of  the 
Northern  press  is  cheering  in  the  extreme ;  the  feeling  in  favor  of  the 
South,  and  against  the  abolitionists,  is  deep  and  almost  universal. 
Charleston  Courier,  21st  July,  1834. 

When,  until  late  years,  have  the  Governors  of  even  slave 
States,  dared  to  promulgate  such  "abominable"  doctrines  as 
those  we  have  quoted  ? 

Unless  we  greatly  deceive  ourselves.        have  now  shown  that 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  89 

no  desire  exists  at  the  South  to  get  rid  of  slavery,  at  least  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  render  colonization  in  the  remotest  degree 
instrumental  in  abolishing  it ;  and  it  is  an  unquestioned  fact, 
that  in  eighteen  years  only  about  900  manumitted  slaves  have 
been  sent  to  Africa.  But  certain  laws  have  been  recently  passed 
by  Virginia  and  Maryland,  which  are  triumphantly  cited  by 
colonizationists  as  proofs  of  the  growing  desire  at  the  South  to 
abolish  slavery,  —  a  desire  which  is  attributed  to  the  influence 
of  the  Society. 

The  law  of  Virginia  appropriates  $18,000  a  year  for  five 
years,  for  the  transportation  of  colored  persons  to  Africa.  Now 
it  is  evident  that  the  effect  of  this  law  upon  slavery  in  Virginia, 
must  depend  on  the  class  of  colored  persons  to  be  transported. 
Will  it  be  believed  that  this  law,  received  with  such  joy  and 
triumph  by  colonizationists,  confines  the  application  of  its  appro 
priation  to  the  removal  of  such  blacks  as  were  free  at  the  date  of 
its  passage  ?  In  other  words,  it  declares  to  the  slave-holders, 
"We  will  not  assist  you  in  manumitting  your  slaves."  By  a 
previous  law,  any  manumitted  slave,  who  does  not  leave  the  State 
in  twelve  months,  becomes  again  a  slave :  this  new  law  provides 
that  such  a  manumitted  slave  shall  not  be  sent  to  Africa, — of 
course  it  affords  no  possible  inducement  or  facility  whatever  to 
manumission ;  and  its  whole  operation  is  confined  to  the  removal 
of  nuisances,  —  and  we  have  already  seen,  from  the  avowal  of 
members  of  the  Legislature,  that  this  removal  is  virtually  to  be 
compulsory.  The  philanthropy  that  rejoices  in  such  a  law,  is 
indeed  of  a  peculiar  cast,  but  it  is  the  philanthropy  of  "the 
benevolent  colonization  system."* 

The  Maryland  law  of  1832  appropriates  $200,000  to  be 
applied  through  the  agency  of  the  Maryland  Colonization  Society, 
to  the  removal  to  Africa,  of  "  the  people  of  color  now  free,  and 
such  as  shall  hereafter  become  so." 


*A  party  writer,  in  a  late  number  of  the  Richmond  Enquirer,  says  :  "  An 
opposition  man,  who  stated  in  the  spring,  that  he  considered  the  removal  of 
the  deposits  as  affecting  the  value  of  his  property  thirty  per  cent.,  admits 
now,  that  he  never  saw  a  more  WHOLESOME  STATE  OF  THINGS  ;  negro  boys 
and  men  will  fetch  from  $600  to  $700."  Is  Virginia  sick  of  this  wholesome 
state  of  things  ? 


90  JAY'S  WORKS. 

On  the  20th  of  January,  1833,  the  American  Colonization 
Society 

"  Resolved,  that  the  Society  view  with  the  highest  gratification,  the 
continued  efforts  of  the  State  of  Maryland  to  accomplish  her  patriotic 
ana  BENEVOLENT  SYSTEM  in  regard  to  her  colored  population ;  and 
that  the  last  appropriation  by  that  State  of  $200,000  in  aid  of  African 
Colonization,  is  hailed  by  the  friends  of  the  system  as  a  BRIGHT  EX 
AMPLE  to  other  States." 

Let  us  now  examine  this  "  benevolent  system,"  this  "  bright 
example,"  and  see  how  it  accords  with  Christian  love  and  sin 
cerity. 

In  forming  our  opinion  of  the  true  character  of  this  scheme,  it 
will  not  be  improper  to  take  into  consideration  the  avowed 
motives  which  gave  it  birth.  The  Legislature,  in  their  session 
of  1831,  adopted  the  following  resolutions  : 

"  Resolved,  that  the  increased  proportion  of  the  free  people  of  color, 
in  this  State,  to  the  white  population  —  the  evils  growing  out  of  their 
connection  and  unrestrained  association  with  the  slaves,  their  habits  and 
manner  of  obtaining  a  subsistence,  and  their  withdrawing  A  LARGE 
PORTION  of  employment  from  the  laboring  class  of  the  white  population, 
are  subjects  of  momentous  and  grave  consideration  to  the  good  people 
of  this  State. 

"  Resolved,  that  as  philanthropists  and  lovers  of  freedom,  we  deplore 
the  existence  of  slavery  among  us,  and  would  use  our  utmost  exertions 
to  ameliorate  its  condition :  yet  we  consider  the  unrestricted  power  of 
manumission  as  fraught  with  ultimate  evils,  of  a  more  dangerous  tendency 
than  the  circumstance  of  slavery  alone ;  and  that  any  act,  having  for 
its  object  the  mitigation  of  these  joint  evils,  not  inconsistent  with  other 
paramount  considerations,  would  be  worthy  the  attention  and  deliber 
ation  of  the  representatives  of  a  free,  liberal-minded  and  enlightened 
people." 

Another  resolution  followed,  declaring  that,  by  the  coloniza 
tion  of  free  people  of  color  in  Africa,  "these  evils  may  be 
measurably  diminished,  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  frame 
a  bill  upon  "  the  principles  "  of  these  resolutions. 

Such,  then,  are  the  principles  of  the  Maryland  benevolent 
system ;  and  which  of  them  is  derived  from  the  gospel  of  Christ  ? 
So  far  as  the  system  relates  to  the  free  blacks,  it  proposes  their  re 
moval,  not  out  of  kindness  to  them,  but  because  they  are  supposed 
to  be  injurious  to  slave  property  ;  because  their  habits  and  manner 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  91 

of  obtaining  a  subsistence,  the  necessary  results  of  wicked  laws, 
are  vicious  ;  and  because  they  enter  into  competition  with  white 
laborers.  This  last  accusation  against  the  free  blacks,  is  a  most 
extraordinary  one,  when  made  by  a  people  who  keep  in  their 
employment  more  than  ONE  HUNDRED  THOUSAND  BLACK 
LABORERS,  who  toil  without  wages,  and  subsist  on  the  scantiest 
fare  ;  and  yet  the  interference  of  these  laborers  with  "  the  labor 
ing  class  of  the  white  population,"  occasions  no  uneasiness,  and 
leads  to  no  plan  for  their  removal.  And  what  are  the  principles 
of  this  system  with  regard  to  slaves  ?  Why,  that  it  is  worse  to 
give  a  slave  his  liberty  here,  than  to  keep  him  in  bondage ;  but 
at  the  same  time,  that  "  the  utmost  exertions  "  ought  to  be  made 
to  "  ameliorate  his  condition."  Let  us  now  proceed  to  the  prac 
tical  application  of  these  principles.  At  the  next  session,  a  re 
port  was  presented,  in  which  calculations  are  entered  into,  to 
show  that  "  the  WHOLE  of  this  population  (of  free  blacks)  can 
be  removed  in  the  course  of  one  generation  alone."  But  the 
legislators  are  philanthropists  and  lovers  of  freedom,  and  deplore 
the  existence  of  slavery.  Let  us  see  how  the  committee  propose 
to  remove  this  deplored  evil.  The  report  says  of  the  slavesj 
"  they  are  property,  and  must  be  so  regarded,  and  without  their 
owners'  consent,  none  of  them  can  be  touched." 

Here  we  have  a  principle  which  secures  to  Maryland  the  bless 
ings  of  slavery  forever.  In  no  country  in  the  world,  in  ancient 
or  modern  times,  has  slavery  been  abolished  by  the  unani 
mous  consent  of  slave-holders.  Never  has  it  been  peaceably 
abolished  but  by  law.  The  Northern  and  Eastern  States  could 
abolish  slavery  without  the  consent  of  the  owners :  the  Republi 
can  States  of  South  America  could  do  the  same  :  the  Legislature 
of  Maryland  can  rule  fifty  thousand  of  their  free  colored  cit 
izens  with  a  rod  of  iron,  can  deny  them  the  most  common  and 
inestimable  rights  of  humanity ;  but  it  cannot  rescue  a  human 
being  from  unmerited  and  involuntary  bondage  ! 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  famous  appropriation  act.  By  this  act, 
masters  are  allowed  to  manumit  their  slaves,  but  then  the  man 
umitted  slaves  are  to  be  transported  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
State ;  and  should  a  parent  or  a  child,  a  husband  or  a  wife, 


92  JAY'S  WORKS. 

shudder  at  parting  forever  from  a  near  and  dear  relative,  the 
separation  may  be  avoided  by  a  renunciation,  in  open  court,  of 
the  newly  acquired  liberty,  and  a  public  consent  to  continue  a 
slave  !  Such  is  the  bearing  of  this  benevolent  system  on  slavery. 
Let  us  now  contemplate  its  effects  on  the  free  blacks.  The 
appropriation  bill  authorizes  no  compulsion,  and  imposes  no 
penalties  on  a  refusal  to  go  to  Africa.  It  was  not  expedient 
that  this  bill  should  contain  such  provisions,  and  therefore  they 
were  inserted  in  another  bill  passed  by  the  same  Legislature, 
and  within  two  days  of  the  other,  entitled,  "  An  act,  relating  to 
free  negroes  and  slaves."  This  act,  like  the  Connecticut  Black 
Act,  is  a  bold  and  flagrant  violation  of  the  constitutional  rights 
of  free  citizens.  A  citizen  of  New  York,  if  his  complexion  be 
colored,  may  not  visit  a  dying  child  or  parent  in  Maryland, 
without  incurring  a  penalty  of  fifty  dollars  for  every  week  he 
remains,  and  if  he  is  unable  to  pay  the  fine,  why  then  he  is  to 
be  sold  by  the  sheriff  at  public  sale  for  such  time  as  may  he  neces 
sary  to  cover  the  aforesaid  penalty.  But  if  a  free  negro  is  sold 
for  a  limited  time,  he  is,  in  fact,  SOLD  FOR  LIFE.  During  the 
term  for  which  he  is  sold,  he  is  a  chattel,  and  may  be  transported 
at  the  pleasure  of  his  master ;  and  when  the  expiration  of  his 
term  finds  him  in  a  cotton  field  in  Missouri,  or  a  sugar  mill  in 
Louisiana,  who  is  to  rescue  him  from  interminable  bondage  ? 
Should  a  colored  citizen  of  Maryland  cross  its  boundary  on 
business,  ever  so  urgent  to  himself  and  family,  on  returning  to 
his  home,  more  than  a  month  after,  he  also  is  liable  to  be  seized 
and  SOLD,  unless  previous  to  his  departure  he  had  complied  with, 
certain  vexatious,  legal  formalities  ;  and  which,  from  ignorance, 
he  would  be  extremely  likely  to  neglect,  or  perform  imperfectly. 

A  striking  illustration  of  this  "benevolent  system"  lately 
occurred.  A  free  colored  man,  living  near  the  line  of  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia,  petitioned  the  Maryland  House  of  Delegates 
for  leave  to  bring  his  grandchild  from  the  City  of  Washington. 
The  child  had  probably  been  left  an  orphan,  and  he  naturally 
wished  to  take  it  into  his  own  house.  The  petition  was  re 
jected  ! 

A  brisk  slave-trade  is  carried  on  between  Maryland  and  the 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  93 

Southern  States,  and  it  is  well  known  that  free  negroes  are  often 
the  victims  of  this  trade ;  instances  occurring  of  whole  families 
being  kidnapped.  Under  such  circumstances,  many  would  wish 
to  have  the  means  of  protecting,  if  necessary,  the  freedom  of 
themselves  and  children ;  but  the  new  bill  forbids  them  to  keep 
any  military  weapon,  without  a  special  license  from  a  county 
court,  or  city  corporation  ;  a  condition  amounting  virtually  to  a 
total  prohibition.  No  free  negro  may  attend  a  religious  meeting 
not  conducted  by  a  white  person. 

As  the  law  thus  discourages,  and  in  a  great  measure  prohibits 
religious  instruction,  exhortation,  and  social  prayer,  among  fifty 
thousand  of  the  population  of  Maryland,  no  wonder  it  presumes 
every  one  of  that  fifty  thousand  to  be  a  thief.  Hence  no  person 
may,  under  the  penalty  of  five  dollars,  buy  of  a  free  negro  "  any 
bacon,  pork,  beef,  mutton,  corn,  wheat,  tobacco,  rye,  or  oats," 
unless  he  shall  at  the  time  exhibit  a  certificate  from  a  Justice  of 
the  Peace,  or  three  respectable  persons,  that  he  or  they  believe 
the  said  negro  came  honestly  by  the  identical  article  offered  for 
sale. 

Such  are  some  of  the  features  of  the  law,  and  they  are  well 
calculated  to  induce  the  free  negroes  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
benevolent  and  munificent  provision  made  by  the  other  law  for 
their  transportation  to  Africa.  The  concluding  section,  however, 
is  the  most  operative  of  the  whole,  and  promises  to  afford  ample 
employment  for  the  two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  to  furnish 
Liberia  with  an  abundant  population.  It  is  as  follows : 

"  Sect.  12.  And  be  it  enacted,  that  if  any  free  negro  or  mulatto  shall 
be  convicted  of  ANY  crime,  committed  after  the  passage  of  this  act, 
which  may  not,  under  the  laws  of  this  State,  be  punished  by  hanging 
by  the  neck,  such  free  negro  or  mulatto  may,  in  the  discretion  of  the 
court,  be  sentenced  to  the  penalties  and  punishments  now  provided  by 
law,  or  be  banished  from  this  State,  on  BE  TRANSPORTED  INTO  SOME 

FOREIGN  COUNTRY." 

Hence,  if  a  free  negro  steals  a  pound  of  tobacco,  he  may  be 

shipped  off  to  Liberia.     In  civilized  countries,  it  has  been  the 

aim  of  the  Legislature,  to  apportion  punishments  to  crimes,  but 

Maryland  has  set  "  a  bright  example  "  of  a  simplification  of  the 

9 


94  JAY'S  WORKS. 

criminal  code,  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  jurisprudence 
She  tells  her  judges,  "  in  the  case  of  free  black  offenders,  yoi 
need  give  yourselves  no  trouble  in  comparing  the  different  shades 
of  guilt,  and  weighing  those  circumstances  which  aggravate  01 
mitigate  the  offence.  In  certain  cases,  you  must  hang  them ;  ir 
all  others,  without  exception,  you  may  send  them  to  Africa." 

This  is  the  "  benevolent  system,"  the  "  bright  example  "  laudec 
by  the  American  Colonization  Society.  This  is  the  systen 
which  is  cited  as  a  proof  that  Maryland  desires  to  abolish  slavery 
A  symptom  of  this  desire  occurred  in  the  Maryland  House  o 
Delegates,  in  1834.  Mr.  Mann  moved  an  inquiry  into  the  expe 
diency  of  abolishing  slavery,  after  a  certain  period.  So  grea 
was  the  excitement  produced  by  this  motion,  that  the  mover  with 
drew  it,  and  the  minute  of  the  motion  was  expunged  from  tin 
journal. 

The  $200,000,  it  seems,  are  entrusted  to  the  Maryland  Colo 
nization  Society;  and  that  Society,  wishing  still  farther  t( 
increase  its  funds,  has  appealed  to  the  benevolence  of  the  North 
The  appeal  is  founded  on  two  solemn  official  declarations :  first 
that  it  aims  at  the  extirpation  of  slavery  in  Maryland,  by  coloni 
zation ;  and  secondly,  that  it  contemplates  "  founding  a  natior 
on  the  principle  of  temperance." 

We  have  seen  that  a  committee  of  the  Maryland  Legislature 
insisted  on  the  possibility  of  the  removal  of  the  whole  free  blacl 
population  in  one  generation.  The  Society  in  their  address 
repeatedly  declare  their  object  to  be  the  extirpation  of  slaver} 
by  colonization ;  and  the  Legislature  forbids,  as  we  have  alse 
seen,  manumission  at  home.  Of  course,  slavery  can  only  be 
extirpated  by  the  removal,  not  of  a  select  portion,  but  of  all  the 
slaves. 

In  what  terms  ought  we  then  to  speak  of  the  following  resolu 
tion  of  the  Maryland  Society,  published  to  conciliate  the  friendi- 
of  temperance  at  the  North  ? 

"  Whereas  it  is  desired  that  the  settlement  about  to  be  made  by  this 
Society,  should,  as  far  as  practicable,  become  a  moral  and  temperate 
community ;  and  as  this  is  to  be  effected,  in  a  great  degree,  by  the 
character  of  the  emigrants,  who  leave  America  for  a  new  home  ir 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  95 

Africa :  and  whereas,  the  sad  experience  of  this  country  has  shown  the 
demoralizing  effects  of  the  use  of  ardent  spirits, 

Be  it  resolved,  that  no  emigrant  shall  be  permitted  to  go  from  Mary 
land  to  a  settlement  from  this  Society  in  Africa,  who  will  not  first  bind 
himself,  or  herself,  to  abstain  therefrom." 

So  the  Society  is  to  carry  to  Africa  100,000  slaves,  and  thus 
exterminate  slavery  in  their  State  ;  and  yet  they  will  positively 
refuse  to  carry  one  of  them  until  he  has  taken  the  temperance 
pledge.  But  what  if  a  portion  of  them  will  not  consent  to  take 
the  pledge  ?  must  slavery  continue,  or  must  means  be  taken  to 
coerce  their  consent  ? 

None  but  those  wilfully  blind,  can  examine  this  subject  with 
out  seeing  that  the  measures  adopted  by  Virginia  and  Maryland 
are  mere  contrivances  to  get  rid  of  the  free  blacks ;  and  far 
more  disgraceful  in  the  latter,  than  in  the  former  case,  because 
more  disguised  by  insincere  professions. 

The  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce,  a  colonization  paper, 

A  had  the  candor  in  speaking  on  the  subject,  to  remark,  "  It  is  true 

i  these  States  do  not  propose  to  resort,  in  the  first  instance,  to 

compulsory  measures ;  but  does  any  one  doubt  that  they  will 

resort  to  such  measures,  if  the  number  of  volunteer  emigrants 

should  not  be  sufficient  to  exhaust  the  appropriations  made  for 

their   removal  ? "     And  a   Baltimore   paper,   (the   Chronicle,) 

alluding  to  the  Maryland  acts,  avows,  "  The  INTENTION  of  those 

laws  was,  and  their  effect  must  be,  to  EXPEL  the  free  people  of 

color  from  the  State." 

Yet  do  these  cruel  and  perfidious  measures  receive  the  support 
and  approbation  of  the  Colonization  Society. 

There  is  still  a  powerful  objection  to  the  whole  colonization 
scheme,  as  a  means  of  removing  slavery,  to  which  we  have  not 
yet  adverted.  No  principle  of  political  economy  is  more  obvious 
than  that  prices  depend  on  supply  and  demand.  If  the  first  is 
diminished,  while  the  latter  is  increased,  or  even  remains  station 
ary,  prices  necessarily  rise.  We  can  all  understand,  that  should 
half  the  sheep  in  the  United  States  be  suddenly  destroyed,  or 
carried  out  of  the  country,  the  value  of  the  remaining  half 
would  instantly  be  enhanced.  So  also,  we  have  no  difficulty  in 


96  JAY'S  WORKS. 

seeing,  that  should  the  cholera  sweep  off  from  the  Southern 
plantations,  two  or  three  hundred  thousand  slaves,  there  would 
be  an  increased  activity  in  the  man-market,  and  human  flesh 
would  rise  many  per  cent,  in  price.  Yet  it  seems  never  to  occur 
to  colonizationists,  that  were  it  possible  for  them  to  produce  any 
sensible  diminution  of  the  slaves  by  transportation,  the  same 
consequences  would  follow.  The  Society  proposes  reducing  the 
number  of  laborers,  but  without  diminishing  the  demand  for 
them.  Let  us  suppose  every  free  negro  safely  landed  at  Libe 
ria  —  of  course  all  the  laborers  remaining  in  the  cotton  and 
sugar-fields  of  the  South,  are  slaves.  Now  the  Society  is  grad 
ually  sending  away  these  slaves,  not  by  freeing  at  once  any  town 
or  county  from  them,  but  by  picking  them  up  throughout  the 
whole  slave-region,  as  it  can  meet  with  conscientious  masters ; 
taking  a  few  in  one  place,  and  a  few  in  another ;  now  stripping 
a  plantation  of  its  slaves  in  Virginia,  and  now  in  Missouri. 
This  indiscriminate  mode  of  obtaining  emigrants,  necessarily  and 
absolutely  prevents  the  substitution  of  white  for  black  labor. 
The  plantations  thus  divested  of  laborers,  must  remain  barren 
till  new  slaves  are  procured.  But  the  proprietor  is  too  consci 
entious  to  buy  any,  and  is  hence  compelled  to  sell  his  estate. 
The  purchaser  immediately  goes  into  the  market  to  re-stock  the 
farm.  Others  do  the  same,  and  hence  arises  a  new  demand  for 
slaves,  and  of  course  an  increase  of  their  value.  But  as  slaves 
grow  more  and  more  valuable,  the  disposition  to  make  presents 
of  them  to  the  Colonization  Society  will  decline.  Thus  does 
the  inevitable  mercantile  operation  of  the  Society,  independent 
of  all  moral  considerations,  necessarily  tend  to  defeat  its  object. 
The  idea  of  abolishing  slavery,  by  increasing  the  demand  for 
slaves,  is  about  as  wise,  as  would  be  a  plan  for  lessening  the 
circulation  of  infidel  books,  by  raising  a  fund  for  their  purchase. 
We  have  now  examined  the  means  by  which  the  Society 
proposes  to  effect  the  removal  of  slavery,  and  trust  we  have 
shown  their  utter  worthlessness.  Were  the  impracticability  of 
this  scheme  its  only  objection,  the  friends  of  humanity  and  reli 
gion  would  not  be  called  on,  as  they  now  are,  to  meet  it  with 
unrelenting  hostility  —  to  labor  without  rest,  and  without  weari- 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  97 

ness,  for  its  entire  prostration.  Alas,  though  powerless  for  good, 
it  is  mighty  for  evil ;  and  its  baneful  influence  is  leading  multi 
tudes  of  good  and  well-intentioned  men,  unconsciously  to  coun 
tenance  doctrines  and  measures,  necessarily  tending  to  perpetuate 
slavery  and  all  its  abominations  in  our  land.  This  is  an  asser 
tion  that  ought  not  rashly  to  be  made  nor  hastily  believed.  We 
appeal  to  common  sense  and  undisputed  facts. 

Admitting  that  colonization  could,  in  the  course  of  ages, 
extirpate  slavery,  ought  we,  therefore,  to  reject  every  means  of 
shortening  the  sufferings  of  the  slave,  by  hastening  his  libera 
tion  ?  But  colonizationists,  not  content  with  insisting  on  the 
efficiency  of  their  own  plan,  discourage  and  oppose  every  other. 
Now  should  their  plan  prove  delusive,  after  the  lapse  of  centuries, 
their  influence  in  preventing  the  adoption  of  any  other,  will 
have  been  fatal,  as  far  as  it  may  have  gone,  to  the  freedom  of 
millions. 

"  It  (colonization)  is  the  ONLY  possible  mode  of  emancipation  at 
once  safe,  and  rational,  that  human  ingenuity  can  devise."  Speech  of 
Mr.  Custiss.  13th  Report,  p.  8. 

"  Colonization  is  the  ONLY  expedient  by  which  these  evils  can  be 
mitigated."  Speech  of  J.  A.  Dix.  Afr.  Rep.,  IV,  168. 

"  To  this  country  it  offers  the  ONLY  possible  means  of  gradually  rid 
ding  ourselves  of  a  mighty  evil."  1st  Rep.,  N.  Y.  Colonization  Society. 

"  The  colonizing  scheme,  leading  as  it  does  to  voluntary  manumission, 
is  the  ONLY  one  which  true  wisdom  can  dictate."  Speech  of  Mr.  Key, 
Vice  President.  Afr.  Rep.,  IV,  p.  299. 

"  I  would  urge  this  system  of  colonization  upon  your  notice,  as  the 
ONLY  rational  plan  which  has  yet  been  suggested  for  relieving  our 
Southern  brethren  from  the  curse  of  slavery."  Speech  of  Chancellor 
Walworth  of  N.  Y. 

"  The  only  rational  and  practical  plan  ever  devised  for  the  emanci 
pation  of  the  slaves  of  independent  States."  N.  Y.  Courier  and  En 
quirer,  12th  May,  1834,  a  colonization  paper. 

"  This  great  end  (abolition)  is  to  be  attained  in  NO  OTHER  way  than 
by  a  plan  of  extensive  colonization."  Letter  of  R.  G.  Harper,  Vice 
President.  2d  Rep.,  p.  3. 

"  In  our  opinion,  the  Colonization  Society  presents  the  ONLY  safe  and 
feasible  plan  for  the  liberation  of  our  slaves  from  bondage."  Report 
of  Wilmington  Col.  Society.  Afr.  Rep.,  IX,  319. 

9* 


98  JAY'S  WORKS. 

We  have  seen  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  moral  influence  of 
this  only  rational  plan  in  favor  of  abolition  ;  let  us  now  examine 
that  which  it  exerts  in  behalf  of  slavery. 

In  the  first  place,  we  ask,  what  must  be  the  natural  effect  on 
public  opinion  of  such  disclaimers  as  the  following  ? 

"  It  is  no  Abolition  Society  ;  it  addresses,  as  yet,  arguments  to  no 
master.  It  denies  the  design  of  attempting  emancipation,  partial  or 
general"  Address  of  J.  B.  Harrison  to  Lyncliburgh  Col.  Society.  Afr. 
Rep.,  Ill,  197. 

"  Into  their  (the  Society's)  accounts,  the  subject  of  emancipation 
does  not  enter  at  all."  Afr.  Rep.,  IV,  p.  306. 

"  The  friends  of  colonization  wish  to  be  distinctly  understood  on 
this  point.  From  the  beginning,  they  have  disavowed,  and  they  do  yet 
disavow,  that  their  object  is  the  emancipation  of  slaves."  Speech  of  J. 
S.  Green,  before  the  New  Jersey  Society. 

"  From  its  origin,  and  throughout  the  whole  period  of  its  existence, 
it  has  constantly  disclaimed  all  intention  whatever  of  interfering  in  the 
smallest  degree  with  the  rights  of  property,  or  the  object  of  emanci 
pation,  gradual  or  immediate."  Speech  of  Mr.  Clay,  Vice  President. 
Afr.  Rep.,  VI,  p.  13. 

"  Recognizing  the  constitutional  and  legitimate  existence  of  slavery, 
it  seeks  not  to  interfere,  directly  or  indirectly,  with  the  rights  it  creates." 
Afr.  Rep.,  Ill,  p.  16. 

"  He  considered  himself  publicly  pledged,  so  long  as  he  had  any 
thing  to  do  with  the  Society,  to  resist  every  attempt  to  connect  it  with 
emancipation,  either  in  theory  or  practice"  Speech  of  Gen.  Jones,  a 
Manager  of  the  Am.  Col.  Soc.,  23d  Jan.,  1834. 

"  The  emancipation  of  slaves,  or  the  amelioration  of  their  condition, 
with  the  moral,  intellectual,  and  political  improvement  of  the  people  of 
color  within  the  United  States,  are  objects  foreign  to  the  powers  of 
this  Society."  Address  of  the  Board  of  Managers  to  its  Auxiliaries. 
Afr.  Rep.,'yU,  p.  291. 

Thus  we  see  the  friends  of  the  Society  utterly  deny  that 
emancipation,  partial  or  general,  gradual  or  immediate,  direct  or 
indirect,  in  theory  or  in  practice,  is  included  among  its  objects ; 
and  yet  tire  Society  "  is  the  OXLY  possible  mode  of  emancipation 
at  once  safe  and  rational,  that  human  ingenuity  can  devise  ! " 

A  worthy  vice  president  of  the  Society,  Mr.  G.  Smith, 
remarked : 

"  They  who  denounce  us  for  not  favoring  or  promoting  the  emancipa 
tion  of  slaves,  might  just  as  well  denounce  the  Bible  or  Temperance 
'Society,  because  they  do  not  step  out  of  their  respective  spheres,  to 
favor  or  promote  the  emancipation  of  slaves."  Afr.  Rep.,  IX,  p.  358. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  99 

But  what  if  a  Bible  or  a  Temperance  Society  should  announce 
itself  to  the  world,  as  about  to  abolish  slavery ;  should  declare 
itself  to  be  the  ONLY  possible  instrument  by  which  slavery  could 
be  abolished ;  and  should  oppose  and  ridicule  the  employment  of 
any  other  instrument,  and  should  then  falsify  all  its  professions, 
and  exert  its  influence  to  justify  and  perpetuate  slavery? 

Instead  of  denouncing  the  Society  for  not  stepping  out  of  its 
sphere  to  favor  or  promote  the  emancipation  of  slaves,  we 
denounce  it  for  leaving  that  sphere,  and  for  favoring  and  pro 
moting  continued  slavery.  The  professed  constitutional  object  of 
the  Society,  is  the  colonization  of  free  blacks  and  manumitted 
slaves.  We  fully  admit,  it  has  no  more  right  to  meddle  with 
emancipation  or  slavery,  than  a  Bible  Society  ;  and  wre  condemn 
it,  because  disregarding  its  professed  object,  and  in  utter  contempt 
of  its  own  constitution,  it  has  lent  itself  to  support  and  perpetu 
ate  a  system  of  cruelty  and  wickedness.  It  is  painful  to  make 
these  assertions,  but  duty  requires  them,  and  facts  justify  them. 
We  will  now  proceed  to  show  that  the  Society  (and  by  the  term 
we  intend  colonizationists  generally)  has  stepped  out  of  its  sphere 
to  acknowledge  that  man  may  have  property  in  man  ;  to  justify 
him  for  holding  this  property ;  and  to  vilify  all  who  would  per 
suade  him  instantly  to  surrender  it. 

"  We  hold  their  slaves,  as  we  hold  their  other  property,  SACRED/* 
Speech  of  J.  S.  Green,  before  New  Jersey  Colonization  Society.  Afr. 
Hep.,  I,  p.  283. 

"  To  the  slave-holder,  they  (the  Society)  address  themselves  in  a 
tone  of  conciliation  and  sympathy.  We  know  your  RIGHTS,  say  they, 
and  we  RESPECT  them."  Afr.  Rep.,  VII,  p.  100. 

"  The  rights  of  the  masters  are  to  remain  SACRED  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Society."  Address  of  Rockbridge  Col.  Soc.  Afr.  Rep.,  IV,  p.  274. 

"  We  decline  assenting  to  the  opinion  of  some  abolitionists,  that 
though  the  master's  right  over  his  living  slaves  should  be  conceded,  yet 
he  has  no  claim  of  property  in  the  unborn,  for  the  reason  that  there 
can  be  no  property  in  a  thing  not  in  esse.  This  position  is  wholly 
untenable,  under  any  jurisprudence."  Am.  Quar.  Review,  transferred 
to  Afr.  Rep.,  IX,  p.  35. 

The  right  of  property  in  human  flesh,  cannot  surely  be  rnore\ 
sacred  than  that  in  RUM  ;  and  yet  it  would  sound  strange,  to  j 
hear  a  religious  society  addressing  the  rum-seller  in  a  tone  of 


100  JAY'S  WOKKS. 

conciliation  and  sympathy,  and  assuring  him  that  they  regarded 
his  property  in  rum  as  sacred,  and  respected  his  right  to  traffic 
in  it. 

If  it  be  a  question  whether  man  can  lawfully  have  property 
in  man,  who  authorized  the  Society  to  settle  it  ?  That  it  is  a 
question,  is  evident  from  the  following  exclamation  of  Lord 
Chancellor  Brougham,  in  one  of  his  speeches  :  "  Talk  not  of 
the  property  of  the  planter  in  his  slaves.  I  deny  the  right  —  I 
acknowledge  not  the  property."  And  yet  the  right  of  the  West 
Indian  and  the  Virginia  planter,  rested  on  precisely  the  same 
basis,  the  sanction  of  human  laws. 

Not  only  does  the  Society  acknowledge  slaves  to  be  property, 
but  it  excuses  and  justifies  those  who  hold  this  property. 

No  motive  can  operate  so  powerfully  in  inducing  a  master  to 
liberate  his  slaves,  as  the  conviction  that,  by  retaining  them,  he 
is  acting  contrary  to  the  will  of  his  Maker,  and  exposing  him 
self  to  his  displeasure. 

In  a  manual  of  devotion,  lately  published  by  the  excellent 
Bishop  Meade,  of  Virginia,  himself  a  zealous  colonizationist, 
there  is  a  prayer  to  be  used  by  the  head  of  a  family.  This 
prayer,  intended  expressly  for  the  slave-region,  has  this  affecting 
petition :  "  O  heavenly  Master,  hear  me  while  I  lift  up  my  heart 
in  prayer,  for  those  unfortunate  beings  who  call  me  master.  O 
God,  make  known  unto  me  my  whole  duty  towards  them  and 
their  oppressed  race,  and  give  me  courage  and  zeal  to  do  it  at 
all  events.  Convince  me  of  sin,  if  I  be  wrong  in  retaining  them 
another  moment  in  bondage" 

It  is  observable,  that  in  this  prayer,  the  slave-holder,  when  in 
communion  with  his  Maker,  far  from  claiming  a  sacred  right  of 
property  in  his  fellow  immortals,  dares  not  make  any  claim  to 
them  whatever,  but  alludes  to  them  as  those  "  who  call  me  mas 
ter."  It  is  also  obvious,  that  the  question  of  immediate  eman 
cipation  is  pressing  on  his  conscience,  and  fearful  lest  he  is 
committing  sin  in  holding  slaves  "  another  moment,"  he  implores 
the  Divine  guidance.  He  will,  of  course,  seek  for  light  wherever 
it  may  be  found,  and  will  naturally  turn  to  the  Colonization 
Society,  to  learn  the  opinion  of  the  eminent  men  who  belong  to 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  101 

it,  on  tins  momentous  subject.  Now  let  us  see  what  opiates 
that  Society  administers  to  quiet  his  uneasy  conscience,  and  to 
lull  it  in  profound  repose. 

First,  he  is  assured,  that  by  freeing  his  slaves,  he  would  be 
guilty  of  great  inhumanity  towards  them. 

"  The  very  commencing  act  of  freedom  to  the  slave,  is  to  place  him 
in  a  condition  still  worse,  if  possible,  both  for  his  moral  habits,  his  out 
ward  provision,  and  for  the  community  that  embosoms  him,  than  even 
that,  deplorable  as  it  was,  from  which  he  has  been  removed."  Address 
to  Col  Soc.  N.  Carolina.  Afr.  Rep.,  Ill,  p.  66. 

"  What  but  sorrow  can  we  feel  at  the  misguided  piety  which  has  set 
so  many  of  them  free  by  death-bed  devise,  or  sudden  conviction  of 
injustice?"  Address  to  Lynchburgh  Col.  Soc.  Afr.  Rep.,  Ill,  p.  193. 

"  There  arc  in  the  United  States  238,000  blacks  denominated  free, 
but  whose  freedom  confers  on  them,  we  might  say,  no  privilege  but  the 
privilege  of  being  more  vicious  and  miserable  than  slaves  can  be."  Rev. 
Mr.  Bacon, of  New  Haaen.  1th  Rep.,  p.  99. 

"  Policy,  and  even  the  voice  of  humanity,  forbade  the  progress  of 
manumission."  Afr.  Rep.,  IV.  p.  2G8. 

"  It  would  be  as  humane  to  thror;  them  from  the  decks  in  the  middle 
passage,  as  to  set  them  free  in  our  country."  Afr.  Rep.,  IV,  p.  226. 

Was  Washington  wanting  in  humanity,  when  he  liberated  all 
his  slaves  ?  and  was  he  surpassed  in  benevolence  by  his  nephew, 
the  President  of  the  Society,  who  avowed  his  intention  of  never 
giving  freedom  to  any  of  his  ?  Was  it  "  misguided  piety  "  that 
induced  Jefferson  to  set  his  free  by  his  last  will  ?  Was  it  an 
act  of  perfidious  cruelty  in  the  State  of  Georgia  to  purchase  the 
freedom  of  a  slave,  who  had  disclosed  an  intended  conspiracy,  — 
thus  under  the  pretence  of  rewarding  him,  perpetrating  an  act 
as  inhuman  as  throwing  a  fellow  being  from  the  decks  in  the 
middle  passage  ?  Is  the  recent  act  of  North  Carolina,  in  pay 
ing  $1800  for  the  freedom  of  a  slave,  who  had,  with  singular 
intrepidity,  preserved  a  public  building  from  fire,  of  the  same 
character  ? 

Much  as  we  respect  Mr.  Bacon's  character,  we  cannot  but 
believe,  that  could  his  sincerity  be  tested  by  his  being  com 
pelled  to  choose  between  being  a  slave  in  Louisiana,  or  a  free 
black  even  in  Canterbury,  he  would  prefer  the  latter  alternative. 
It  is  the  more  remarkable,  that  Mr.  Bacon  should  have  been  led 


102  JAY'S  WORKS. 

to  make  such  unadvised  assertions,  when  New  Haven  itself 
afforded  full  proof  of  their  incorrectness.  Hear  the  testimony 
of  his  estimable  and  distinguished  fellow  townsman,  Professor 
Silliman. 

"  We  need  not  look  far  from  home  to  see  the  pleasing  effects  of  the 
benevolent  and  disinterested  exertions  of  an  eminent  friend*  of  the 
Africans,  aided  by  a  kindred  spirit.  It  is  delightful  to  the  benevolent- 
mind,  to  see  so  many  of  our  colored  people  living  in  neat  and  comfort 
able  dwellings,  furnished  in  decent  taste,  and  in  sufficient  fulness,  thus 
indicating  sobriety,  industry,  and  self-respect ;  to  see  their  children  in 
clean  attire,  hastening  on  a  Sabbath  morning  to  the  Sunday  school, 
and  on  other  days,  with  cheerful  and  intelligent  faces,  seeking  the  com 
mon  school."  Silliman' s  ±th  of  July  Oration,  1832. 

The  slave-holder  is  farther  instructed  by  the  Society,  that  the 
continuance  of  slavery  here,  is  at  present,  and  under  existing 
circumstances,  unavoidable,  and  that  he  is  perfectly  excusable 
and  innocent  in  keeping  his  fellow-men  in  bondage ;  and  that 
all  the  cruel  laws  relative  to  slavery  are  right  and  proper.  Is 
all  this  calumny  ?  Attend  to  the  testimony. 

"  Slavery  is  an  evil  entailed  upon  the  present  generation  of  slave 
holders,  which  they  must  suffer,  whether  they  will  or  not."  African 
Rep.,  V,-p.  179. 

"  The  existence  of  slavery  among  us,  though  not  at  all  to  be  objected 
to  our  Southern  brethren,  is  a  fault."  Address  of  N.  Y.  Colonization 
Society.  Afr.  Rep.,  VII,  p.  136. 

May  we  ask,  how  came  the  States  of  Missouri,  Alabama,  and 
Mississippi,  which  within  thirty  years  were  nearly  in  a  state  of 
nature,  to  be  now  thronged  with  slaves  ? 

"  It  (the  Society)  condemns  no  man  because  he  is  a  slave-holder." 
Editorial  Article  — Afr.  Rep.,  VII,  p.  200. 

"  Acknowledging  the  necessity  by  which  its  (slavery)  present  con 
tinuance,  and  rigorous  provisions  for  its  maintenance,  are  justified." 
Afr.  Rep.,  Ill,  p.  16. 

"  It  is  the  business  of  the  free,  their  safety  requires  it,  to  keep  the 
slaves  in  ignorance."  Proceedings  of  New  York  Col.  Soc.,  2d  Ann. 

"  The  laws  of  Virginia  now  discourage,  and  very  wisely,  perhaps, 
the  emancipation  of  slaves."  Speech  of  Mr.  Mercer,  V.  President,  I 
Rep. 

*  The  Rev.  S.  S.  Jocelyn,  an  active  and  public  opponent  of  the  Coloniza 
tion  Society. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  103 

"  They  (the  abolitionists)  confound  the  misfortunes  of  one  generation 
with  the  crimes  of  another."  Afr.  Rep.,  VII,  p.  202. 

"  We  all  know,  from  a  variety  of  considerations  which  it  is  unneces 
sary  to  name,  and  in  consequence  of  the  policy  which  is  obliged  to  be 
pursued  in  the  Southern  States,  that  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  free  a 
slave ;  and  hence  the  enactment  of  those  laws,  which  a  fatal  necessity 
seems  to  demand."  Afr.  Rep.,  II,  p.  12. 

"  I  am  not  complaining  of  the  owners  of  slaves :  they  cannot  get  rid  ol 
them."  Address  before  Hampden  Col  Soc.  Afr.  Rep.,  IV,  p.  226. 

"  There  are  men  in  the  Southern  States  who  long  to  do  something 
effectual  for  the  benefit  of  their  slaves,  and  would  gladly  emancipate 
them,  did  not  prudence  and  compassion  forbid  such  a  measure."  I 
Rep.,  p.  100,  App. 

"  Suppose  the  slaves  of  the  South  to  have  the  knowledge  of  free 
men, —  they  would  be  free,  or  exterminated  by  the  whites.  This  ren 
ders  it  necessary  to  prevent  their  instruction,  and  to  keep  them  from 
Sunday  Schools,  or  the  means  of  gaining  knowledge."  Proceedings  of 
New  York  Col.  Soc.,  2d  Ann  Rep. 

"  The  treatment  of  the  slaves  is  in  general  as  good  as  circumstances 
and  the  cruel  necessity  of  the  case  will  permit."  Proceedings  of  New 
York  Col.  Soc.,  2d  Ann. 

"  We  believe  that  there  is  not  the  slightest  moral  turpitude  in  holding 
slaves,  under  existing  circumstances,  in  the  South."  Afr.  Rep., 
IX,  p.  4. 

Thus  do  we  find  the  whole  system  of  American  slavery 
justified  on  the  tyrant's  plea,  necessity.  But  this  is  not  all. 
The  scriptures  themselves  are  wrested  to  confound  those  who 
recommend  abolition. 

The  President  of  the  Geneva  Colonization  Society,  S.  M. 
Hopkins,  Esq.,  in  an  address  delivered  5th  of  August,  1834, 
and  published  by  request  of  the  Society,  after  citing  various  texts 
to  prove  slavery  warranted  by  the  Bible,  thus  goes  on : 

"  Here  are  then  five  places  in  the  New  Testament,  where  the  duty 
of  servants  (slaves)  is  expressly  and  formally  treated  by  way  of  precept, 
and  one  case  of  example,  making  six  in  all.  In  every  one,  the  duty  of 
obedience  is  insisted  on,  and  in  one  or  more,  where  the  duty  of  mas 
ters  is  treated,  there  is  not  the  least  reference  nor  hint  of  the  idea,  that 
Christian  masters  should  manumit  their  slaves ;  much  less  that  other 
Christians  should  preach  manumission.  But  I  go  farther ;  as  I  under 
stand  the  Epistle  to  Timothy,  and  as  it  is  understood  by  such  commen 
tators  as  I  have  consulted,  there  is  an  express  injunction,  applicable  to 
those  times  and  circumstances,  NOT  TO  PREACH  MANUMISSION."  * 

*  Mr.  Hopkins  professes  to  be  opposed  to  slavery,  all  this  Scripture  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding. 


104  JAY'S  WORKS. 

We  will  not  trouble  ourselves  at  present  with  Mr.  Hopkins's 
theology ;  but  we  may  surely  be  permitted  to  inquire,  how  it 
comes  that  the  Constitution  forbids  colonizationists  to  recommend 
and  promote  abolition,  but  gives  them  full  liberty  to  oppose  it  ? 
Why  is  the  Constitution  sacred,  only  when  it  guards  the  interests 
and  soothes  the  conscience  of  the  slave-holder  ?  and  why  is  it  a 
thing  of  nought,  when  colonizationists  would  empty  the  vials  of 
their  wrath  upon  the  heads  of  those  who  proclaim  the  sinfulness 
of  slavery,  and  the  dutyand  policy  of  immediate  emancipation  ?  * 

Let  us  now  scrutinize  a  little  this  plea  of  necessity,  which  is 
urged  by  colonizationists  with  so  much  confidence  in  behalf  of 
slavery.  Does  a  Christian  society,  do  ministers  of  the  gospel  of 
Christ,  maintain  that  it  is  ever  necessary  to  violate  the  command 
of  Jehovah  ?  necessary  to  keep  millions  in  ignorance  of  the 
revealed  will  of  God  ?  necessary  to  trample  upon  human  rights, 
and  to  outrage  the  plainest  principles  of  justice  and  humanity  ? 
Do  Protestants  insist  that  it  is  necessary  to  deny  the  Bible  to 
more  than  one-third  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Southern  States  ? 
What  necessity  required  that  Missouri  should  be  a  slave  State  ? 
What  necessity  multiplied  the  slaves  in  Alabama,  and  Missis 
sippi  from  three  thousand  to  one  hundred  and  eighty-two  thou 
sand,  since  the  year  1800  ?  What  necessity  prevented  Kentucky 
from  liberating  her  twelve  thousand  slaves  in  1790,  when  New 
York  could  liberate  ten  thousand  in  one  day  in  1827  ?  What 
necessity  will  render  Florida  and  Arkansas  slave  States  ?  Why 
did  not  necessity  prevent  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  South 
America,  Mexico,  and  the  West  Indies  ? 

The  Society,  whose  moral  influence  is  to  free  us  from  slavery, 
not  only  quiets  the  conscience  of  the  slave-holder,  by  showing 
the  lawfulness  of  slavery,  but  it  promises  to  enhance  the  value 
of  slave-labor,  and  to  divest  it  of  a  portion  of  that  danger  which 

*It  is  due  to  candor  to  state,  thatch  the  principles  imputed  in  this  work 
to  colonizationists,  are  not  held  by  them  indiscriminately.  A  few  individuals 
have  honorably  and  publicly  disclaimed  one  or  more  of  them.  These  dis 
claimers  have  however  been  made,  we  believe,  without  an  exception,  since 
the  discussions  excited  by  abolitionists.  No  doubt  many  members  would  in 
dignantly  reject  the  doctrines  on  which  we  have  commented.  The  pious  and 
well-intentioned  supporters  of  the  Society,  are  just  beginning  to  understand 
its  true  character,  and  hence  the  numerous  converts  from  colonization  within 
the  last  twelve  months. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  105 

usually  attends  it.  Let  us  see  how  colonization  promotes  the 
interests  of  slave-holders  ;  and  let  us  attend,  in  the  first  instance, 
to  Mr.  Archer,  of  Virginia. 

"  He  was  not  one  of  those  (however  desirahle  it  might  be,  and  was  in 
abstract  speculation)  who  looked  to  the  complete  removal  of  slavery 
among  us.  If  that  consummation  were  to  be  considered  feasible  at  all, 
it  was  at  a  period  too  remote  to  warrant  the  expenditure  of  any  resources 
of  contemplation  or  contribution  now.  The  progress  of  slavery  was 
subjected  to  the  action  of  a  law  of  the  utmost  regularity  of  action. 
Where  this  progress  was  neither  stayed  nor  modified  by  causes  of 
collateral  operation,  it  hastened  with  a  frightful  rapidity,  disproportioned 
entirely  to  the  ordinary  law  of  the  advancement  of  population,  to  its 
catastrophe,  which  was  repletion. 

"  If  none  were  drained  away,  slaves  became,  except  under  peculiar 
circumstances  of  climate  and  production,  inevitably  and  speedily  re 
dundant,  first  to  the  occasions  of  profitable  employment,  and  as  a  con 
sequence,  to  the  facility  of  comfortable  provision  for  them.  No  matter 
what  the  humanity  of  the  owners,  fixed  restriction  on  their  resources 
must  transfer  itself  to  the  comfort  and  subsistence  of  the  slave.  At 
this  last  stage,  the  evil  in  this  form  had  to  stop.  When  this  stage  had 
been  reached,  what  course  or  remedy  remained  ?  Was  open  butchery 
to  be  resorted  to,  as  among  the  Spartans  with  the  Helots  ?  or  general 
emancipation  and  incorporation,  as  in  South  America  ?  or  abandon 
ment  of  the  country  by  the  masters,  as  must  come  to  be  the  case  in 
the  West  Indies  ? 

"  Either  of  these  was  a  deplorable  catastrophe.  Could  all  of  them 
be  avoided,  and  if  they  could,  how?  There  was  but  one  way,  but  that 
might  be  made  effectual,  fortunately.  It  was  to  provide  and  keep  open 
a  drain  for  the  excess  of  increase  beyond  the  occasions  of  profitable 
employment.  This  might  be  done  effectually  by  extension  of  the  plan  of 
the  Society.  *  *  *  *  After  the  present  class  of  free  blacks  had 
been  exhausted  by  the  operation  of  the  plan  he  was  recommending, 
others  would  be  supplied  for  its  action,  in  the  proportion  of  the  excess 
of  the  colored  population  it  would  be  necessary  to  throw  off,  by  the 
process  of  voluntary  manumission  or  sale.  This  effect  must  result  from 
the  depreciating  value  of  the  slaves,  ensuing  their  disproportionate 
multiplication.  This  depreciation  would  be  relieved  and  retarded  at 
the  same  time  by  the  process.  It  was  on  grounds  of  interest,  therefore, 
the  most  indispensable  PECUNIARY  INTEREST,  that  he  addressed  him 
self  to  the  PEOPLE  AND  LEGISLATURES  OF  THE  SLAVE-HOLDING 

STATES."     15th  Report,  p.  22. 

However  we  may  be  surprised  at  the  indiscretion  of  the 
managers  in  printing  and  circulating  this  speech  with  their  an 
nual  report,  we  cannot  but  admire  its  honest  frankness.  Here 
is  no  colonization  poetry,  but  plain,  common-sense  prose ;  no 
pictures  of  the  African  Elysium,  —  no  anticipations  of  the  con- 
10 


106  JAY'S  WORKS. 

version  of  millions  and  millions  of  Pagans,  but  intelligent  re 
marks  on  the  true  means  of  perpetuating  slavery,  and  keeping 
up  the  price  of  slaves.  Knowing  the  utter  futility  of  abolishing 
slavery  by  colonization,  Mr.  Archer  will  not  expend  on  that 
topic  even  his  "  contemplation."  But  the  time  will  come  when 
negroes  will  be  so  plenty,  that  it  will  be  difficult  to  find  either 
work  or  food  for  them ;  and  this  state  of  things,  if  not  prevented, 
will  lead  to  the  abolition  of  slavery.  But  the  Society  may  pre 
vent  such  a  result  by  sending  off  the  free  blacks,  and  after  they 
are  gone,  by  sending  off  such  slaves  as  may  be  manumitted ; 
and  by  keeping  open  this  drain,  the  undue  multiplication  of 
slavery  will  be  prevented,  and  their  depreciation  in  the  market 
arrested. 

Let  us  now  attend  to  the  managers  themselves.  In  the  2d 
Report,  p.  9,  they  declare  that  they  confidently  believe  that  the 

"  Colonization  of  the  free  people  of  color,  will  render  the  slave  who 
remains  in  America,  more  obedient,  more  faithful,  more  honest,  and 
consequently  more  useful  to  his  master." 

' "  By  removing  the  most  fruitful  sources  of  discontent  (free  blacks) 
from  among  our  slaves,  we  should  render  them  more  industrious  and 
attentive  to  our  commands"  Address  of  Putnam  (Georgia)  Col. 
Society. 

"  What  greater  pledge  can  we  give  for  the  moderation  and  safety  of 
our  measures,  than  our  own  interests^  as  slave-holders,  and  the  ties  that 
bind  us  to  the  slave-holding  community  to  which  we  belong  ?  "  Speech 
of  Mr.  Key,  Vice  Pres.  11th  Report,  p.  14. 

"  The  injury  they  (the  free  blacks)  do  to  the  slave-holder's  property, 
by  their  influence  upon  his  servants,  would,  if  valued,  amount  to  more 
than  sufficient  to  convey  them  from  us."  Address  of  Rev.  J.  C. 
Young  to  Col  Society.  Afr.  Rep.,  IX,  59. 

"  To  remove  these  persons  from  among  us,  will  increase  the  useful 
ness,  and  improve  the  moral  character  of  those  who  remain  in  servitude, 
and  willi  whose  labors  the  country  is  unaUe  to  dispense."  Address  to  a 
N.  Carolina  Col.  Soc.  Afr.  Rep.,  Ill,  67. 

"  None  are  obliged  to  follow  our  example,  and  those  who  do  not,  will 
find  the  value  of  their  negroes  increased,  by  the  departure  of  ours." 
Kentucky  Luminary. 

"  The  free  negroes  corrupt  our  slaves.  From  what  has  been  adduced, 
the  expediency  of  removing  this  NUISANCE  from  the  community  is 
clearly  inferable,  both  in  relation  to  their  interests  and  ours  ;  and  this 
can  only  be  attained  by  means  of  the  Colonization  Society."  Internal 
Improvements  of  South  Carolina,  by  Robert  Mills,  p.  15. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  107 

So  much  for  the  moral  influence  of  the  Society  in  abolishing 
slavery,  by  rendering  it  profitable.  Now  for  its  agency  in 
rendering  it  safe. 

"  The  tendency  of  the  scheme,  and  one  of  its  objects,  is  to  SECURE 
slave-holders,  and  the  whole  Southern  country,  against  certain  evil 
consequences  growing  out  of  the  present  three-fold  mixture  of  our 
population."  Address  of  a  Virginian  Col.  Soc.  Afr.  Rep.,  IV,  274. 

"  By  removing  these  people,  (free  blacks,)  we  rid  ourselves  of  a 
large  party  who  will  always  be  ready  to  assist  our  slaves  in  any  mis 
chievous  design  they  may  conceive."  Address  to  a  Col.  Soc.  in  Vir 
ginia.  Afr.  Rep.,  1,176. 

"  Are  they  (the  free  blacks)  VIPERS  sucking  our  blood  ?  We  will 
HURL  them  from  us."  Address  to  LyncJiburg  Col.  Society.  Afr.  Rep., 
Ill,  201. 

"  By  thus  repressing  the  rapid  increase  of  blacks,  the  white  popula 
tion  would  be  enabled  to  reach,  and  soon  overtop  them ;  the  conse 
quence  would  be  SECURITY."  Afr.  Rep.,  IV,  344. 

"  The  removal  of  every  single  free  black  in  America,  would  be 
productive  of  nothing  but  SAFETY  to  the  slave-holder."  Afr.  Rep., 

in,  202. 

"  So  far  from  having  a  dangerous  tendency,  when  properly  consid 
ered,  it  will  be  viewed  as  an  additional  guard  to  our  peculiar  species  of 
property."  New  Orleans  Argus. 

"  They  (the  objects  of  the  American  Colonization  Society)  are  in 
the  first  place  to  aid  ourselves,  by  relieving  us  from  a  species  of  pop 
ulation  (free  blacks)  pregnant  with  future  danger."  Speech  of  Gen. 
Harper,  Vice  President.  1th  Report,  p.  7. 

"  I  am  a  Virginian.  I  dread  for  her  the  corroding  evil  of  this 
numerous  caste,  (free  blacks.)  I  tremble  for  the  danger  of  a  disaffec 
tion  spreading,  through  their  seduction,  among  our  servants."  Address 
of  I.  B.  Harrison.  Afr.  Rep.,  Ill,  197. 

Thus  does  the  Society  aim  at  abolishing  slavery,  by  declaring 
it  lawful,  increasing  its  profits,  and  lessening  its  dangers  ;  and 
as  we  shall  presently  see,  covering  with  obloquy,  and  denouncing 
as  fanatics,  all  who  dissent  from  its  assertion,  that  this  is  "  the 
only  possible  mode  "  of  relieving  the  country  from  slavery. 

And  why  is  it  the  only  possible  mode  ?  Because  the  laws  of 
most  of  the  slave  States  prohibit  manumission  at  home,  and 
therefore  no  master  in  those  States  could  liberate  his  slaves,  did 
not  the  Society  enable  him  to  evade  the  law,  by  sending  his 
slaves  to  Africa ?  But  who  made  these  laws?  Slave-holders. 
Who  alone  can  repeal  these  laws  ?  Slave-holders.  Then  slave- 


108  JAY'S  WORKS. 

holders  prevent  themselves  from  liberating  their  slaves;  and 
hence  it  is  optional  with  them  to  grant  manumission  or  not.  Of 
course  colonization  is  not  the  only  possible  mode  of  effecting 
abolition,  since  the  slave-holders,  if  they  pleased,  might  easily 
discover  "  a  more  excellent  way." 

It  will  not  probably  be  denied,  that  he  who  recommends  a 
wicked  act,  or  applauds  it  after  it  is  committed,  participates  in 
the  guilt  of  it ;  and  as  by  the  confession  of  colonizationists,  the 
laws  in  question  prevent  abolition,  those  who  advise  or  approve 
those  laws,  partake  of  the  guilt  of  continuing  slavery.  Let  us 
now  inquire  in  what  relation  the  Colonization  Society  stands  to 
these  laws. 

In  the  first  place,  let  it  be  recollected  that  several  of  the  Legis 
latures  by  whom  these  laws  have  been  enacted,  or  by  whom 
they  are  kept  in  force,  have  decidedly  approved  of  the  Society. 
Now  listen  to  the  official  declaration  of  the  Board  of  Managers. 

"  The  managers  could  with  no  propriety  depart  from  their  original 
and  avowed  purpose,  and  make  emancipation  their  object.  And  they 
would  further  say,  that  if  they  were  not  thus  restrained  by  the  terms 
of  their  association,  they  would  still  consider  any  attempts  to  promote 
the  increase  of  the  free  colored  population  by  manumission,  unneces 
sary,  premature,  and  dangerous"  Memorial  of  the  American  Col.  Soc. 
to  the  several  State  Legislatures.  Afr.  Rep.,  II,  60. 

We  find  here  an  illustration  of  the  remarks  in  our  introduc 
tion,  on  the  convenient  restraints  of  the  Constitution.  The  man 
agers  are  restrained  from  promoting  emancipation  by  the  Con 
stitution,  but  they  are  at  perfect  liberty  to  promote  the  perman 
ency  of  slavery,  by  denouncing  manumission.  And  to  whom  is 
this  denunciation  made  ?  To  the  very  Legislatures  who  are 
striving  to  effect  the  same  object  by  the  laws  we  have  mentioned. 
And  yet  colonizationists  mourn  over  the  misfortune  of  the  mas 
ter  who  is  prevented  by  law  from  liberating  his  slaves  ?  But 
perhaps  the  language  we  have  quoted  w^as  used  inadvertently, 
and  does  not  represent  the  sentiments  of  colonizationists  gener 
ally.  Let  us  see. 

"  This  law,  (a  law  of  Virginia,  by  which  a  manumitted  negro  becomes 
again  a  slave  if  he  remains  twelve  months  in  the  State,)  odious  and 
unjust  as  it  may  at  first  view  appear,  and  hard  as  it  may  seem  to  bear 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  109 

upon  the  liberated  negro,  was  doubtless  dictated  by  sound  policy,  and 
its  repeal  would  be  regarded  by  none  with  more  unfeigned  regret  than  the 
friends  of  African  Colonization.  It  has  restrained  many  masters  from 
giving  freedom  to  their  slaves,  and  has  thereby  contributed  to  check  the 
growth  of  an  evil  already  too  great  and  formidable."  Memorial  from 
Powhattan  Col.  Soc.  to  Virginia  Legislature. 

"  To  set  them  (the  slaves)  loose  among  us,  would  be  an  evil  more 
intolerable  than  slavery  itself."  Report  of  Kentucky  Col.  Society  Afr. 
Rep.,  VI,  81. 

"  As  long  as  our  present  feelings  and  PREJUDICES  exist,  the  abolition 
of  slavery  cannot  be  accomplished  without  the  removal  of  the  blacks." 
2d  Report  N.  York  Soc. 

"  If  the  question  were  submitted,  whether  there  should  be  either 
immediate  or  gradual  emancipation  of  all  the  slaves  in  the  United 
States,  without  their  removal,  painful  as  it  is  to  express  the  opinion,  I 
have  no  doubt  that  it  would  be  unwise  to  emancipate  them."  Speech 
of  Mr.  Clay,  Vice  President,  to  Kentucky  Soc.  Afr.  Rep.,  VI,  5. 

Here  we  find  a  vice  president  of  the  Parent  Society  advocating 
perpetual  slavery  in  preference  to  even  gradual  emancipation. 

"  They  (colonizationists)  entertain  the  opinion  generally,  that  if 
universal  emancipation  were  practicable,  neither  the  interest  of  the 
master,  the  happiness  of  the  slave,  nor  the  welfare  of  the  colony  which 
they  have  at  heart,  would  make  it  desirable."  Mr.  Barton's  Address  to 
a  Col.  Soc.  in  Virginia.  Afr.  Rep.,  VI,  291. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  superadd  our  decided  opinion  that  colonization 
ought  to  keep  equal  pace  with  manumission  of  people  of  color  through 
out  the  United  States."  Proceedings  of  Col.  Meeting  at  Plattsburgh, 
N.  York,  4th  July,  1833. , 

"  Any  scheme  of  emancipation,  without  colonization,  they  know  to 
be  productive  of  nothing  but  evil."  Speech  of  Mr.  Key,  a  Vice  Presi 
dent.  Afr.  Rep.,  IV,  300. 

"  We  would  say,  liberate  them  ONLY  on  condition  of  their  going  to 
Africa  or  Hayti."  Afr.  Rep.,  Ill,  26. 

"  I  am  strongly  opposed  to  emancipation  in  EVERY  SHAPE  AND 
DEGREE,  unless  accompanied  by  colonization."  Letter  from  R.  G. 
Harper,  Vice  President,  to  Secretary  of  the  Society,  20th  August,  1817. 

"  It  is  a  well-established  point,  that  the  public  safety  forbids  either 
the  emancipation  or  the  general  instruction  of  the  slaves."  7th  Report, 
p.  94. 

"  So  long  as  we  can  hold  a  pen,  we  will  employ  it  heart  and  hand, 
against  the  advocates  of  immediate  emancipation,  or  ANY  emancipation 
that  does  not  contemplate  expatriation."  N.  Y.  Courier  and  Enquirer, 
a  Col.  paper,  Wth  July,  1834. 

10* 


110  JAY'S  WORKS. 

"  Emancipation,  with  liberty  to  remain  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
is  but  an  act  of  dreamy  madness."  Speech  of  Mr.  Custiss,  13th 
Report,  p.  8. 

"  What  right,  I  demand,  have  the  children  of  Africa  to  a  homestead 
in  the  white  man's  country  ?  "  Speech  of  Mr.  Custiss,  Ikth  Report, 
p.  21. 

It  is  a  pity  Mr.  Custiss  does  not  ask  his  conscience  what  right 
he  has  to  confine  a  child  of  Africa  to  a  homestead  on  his  own 
plantation  ;  and  why  money  was  raised  by  public  subscription 
to  purchase  permission  for  Philip  Lee  to  leave  a  homestead  to 
which  he  had  no  right. 

What  abundant  cause  for  gratitude  to  Almighty  God,  have 
the  Northern  States,  that  the  colonization  scheme  was  not  devised 
some  forty  years  sooner.  Had  the  doctrines  taught  by  the  Soci 
ety  been  then  held  by  our  statesmen  and  divines,  the  dark  cloud 
of  slavery  would  now  be  brooding  over  our  whole  land. 

We  have  seen  that  the  whole  influence  of  the  Society  and  of 
the  colonizing  Legislatures,  is  to  vindicate  and  preserve  and 
enforce  the  laws  against  manumission.  And  now,  after  defend 
ing  and  strengthening  this  barrier  against  human  freedom,  the 
Society  glorifies  itself  for  its  benevolence  in  having  opened  a 
little  crevice  through  which,  in  sixteen  years,  a  few  hundred 
captives,  out  of  millions,  have  escaped !  Had  the  Society  and 
its  friends  opposed  these  laws,  they  would  long  since  have  been 
swept  away,  and  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  would  have 
been  free,  who  are  now  pining  in  bondage.  In  1782,  Virginia 
repealed  her  restraining  law,  and  in  nine  years,  10,000  slaves 
ware  manumitted.  The  slave-holders  became  alarmed,  —  their 
vocation  was  in  danger  of  becoming  disreputable,  and  the  law 
was  reenacted. 

We  have  all  heard  much  of  the  evils  resulting  from  the  traffic 
in  ardent  spirits,  and  we  know  that  multitudes  are  endeavoring 
to  suppress  it,  by  insisting  that  it  is  sinful,  and  that  Christian 
duty  requires  its  immediate  abolition.  Now  let  us  suppose  a 
society  for  abolishing  it,  to  be  formed  on  the  model  of  the  Col 
onization  Society,  and  ask  ourselves  how  it  would  proceed,  and 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  Ill 

what  would  be  the  prospect  of  its  success.  Such  a  society 
would  begin  by  informing  the  venders,  that  it  held  their  property 
in  rum  SACRED,  and  respected  their  right  to  sell  it ;  that  as  yet, 
it  addressed  arguments  to  no  vender  to  induce  him  to  abandon 
the  traffic ;  that  it  was,  indeed,  a  political  evil,  but  it  was  one 
they  had  unfortunately  engaged  in,  and  which  the  necessities  of 
themselves  and  families  compelled  them  to  continue  for  the  pres 
ent  ;  that  the  society  condemned  no  man  for  being  a  rumseller ; 
that  it  had  no  connection  with  the  fanatics  and  incendiaries  who 
denounced  the  business  as  sinful,  and  demanded  its  immediate 
abolition,  —  but,  inasmuch  as  the  society  knew  that  the  venders 
were  anxious  to  get  rid  of  the  rum  they  unfortunately  possessed, 
it  had  appointed  agents  who  would  gratuitously  afford  their  aid 
in  removing  and  emptying  rum-casks,  and  it  trusted  the  moral 
influence  of  this  proffered  aid  would,  in  a  century  or  more,  effect 
the  total  abolition  of  the  traffic. 

The  absurdity  of  the  conclusion,  in  the  supposed  case,  is  obvi 
ous  ;  and  did  not  prejudice  impair  our  vision,  we  should  see  an 
equal  absurdity  in  the  professed  expectations  of  colonizationists. 
But  is  our  illustration  a  parallel  case  ?  No  :  for  our  ideal  soci 
ety  does  not  profess  to  regard  any  other  evil  as  greater  than  the 
indefinite  continuance  of  the  traffic,  while  the  real  one  boldly 
and  unequivocally  declares  for  perpetual  slavery  in  preference 
to  emancipation,  either  immediate  or  gradual,  without  expatria 
tion.  Now  if  the  expatriation  of  the  whole  body  of  slaves  be 
both  physically  and  morally  impossible  ;  if  the  slaves  could  not 
be  transported  and  maintained  in  Africa,  were  the  masters  wil 
ling  to  surrender  them ;  and  if  the  masters  would  not  surrender 
them,  even  if  they  could  instantly  be  transported  and  maintained, 
then  it  follows  irresistibly,  that  the  moral  influence  of  the  Ameri 
can  Colonization  Society  is  to  perpetuate  slavery  in  the  United 
States. 

We  can  scarcely  persuade  ourselves,  that  any  honest  coloni 
zationists  can,  in  view  of  all  the  facts  which  have  been  developed, 
seriously  believe  that  slavery  will  ever  be  removed  by  coloniza 
tion.  Still  there  may  be  some  who  are  indulging  the  hope 


112  JAY'S  WORKS. 

that  this  scheme  is  promoting  emancipation.  We  entreat  the 
attention  of  such  to  the  proofs  we  will  now  offer,  that  the  Society 
is  in  fact 

AN    ANTI-ABOLITION    ASSOCIATION. 

On  the  9th  of  January,  1828,  Mr.  Harrison,  of  Virginia,  in 
addressing  the  Society  at  its  annual  meeting,  used  the  following 
language : 

"  The  Society  having  declared  that  it  is  in  no  wise  allied  to  any  Abo 
lition  Society  in  America  or  elsewhere,  is  ready  when  there  is  need, 
TO  PASS  A  CENSURE  upon  such  societies  in  America."  llth  Report, 
p.  14. 

The  pledge  thus  given  in  behalf,  and  in  the  presence  of  the 
Society,  was  published  and  circulated  by  the  Board  of  Mana 
gers.  It  was  a  gross  violation  of  the  constitution,  and  an 
unblushing  outrage  on  the  multiplied  professions  of  the  Society, 
that  its  only  object  was  the  colonization  of  free  blacks.  But  we 
cannot  understand  the  full  meaning  and  unholy  nature  of  this 
pledge,  without  adverting  to  the  Abolition  Societies  to  which  it 
related.  This  pledge,  be  it  remembered,  had  no  reference  to  the 
associations  now  known  as  Anti-Slavery  Societies,  and  which 
are  accused  of  a  design  to  destroy  the  Union  —  to  drench  the 
land  in  human  gore,  and  to  produce  by  marriage  an  amalgama 
tion  of.  color.  Such  societies  were  unknown,  such  charges 
unheard  of,  when  this  pledge  was  given.  The  Abolition  Soci 
eties  which  were  to  be  censured,  were  societies  founded  by  JAY 
and  FRANKLIN,  and  which  advocated  gradual  emancipation. 

The  first  society  ever  formed,  it  is  believed,  for  the  abolition 
of  slavery,  was  organized  in  the  city  of  New  York,  January, 
1785,  under  the  presidency  of  JOHN  JAY.  The  principles 
maintained  by  this  society,  may  be  gathered  from  the  preamble 
to  its  constitution. 

"  The  benevolent  Creator  and  Father  of  all  men,  having  given  them 
all  an  equal  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  property,  no  sovereign  power  on 
earth  can  justly  deprive  them  of  either,  but  in  conformity  to  impartial 
government,  and  laws,  to  which  they  have  expressly  or  tacitly  con 
sented.  It  is  our  duty,  therefore,  as  free  citizens  and  Christians,  not 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  113 

only  to  regard  with  compassion  the  injustice  done  to  those  among  us, 
who  are  held  as  slaves,  but  to  endeavor,  by  lawful  means,  to  enable 
them  to  share  equally  with  us  in  the  civil  and  religious  liberty  with  which 
an  indulgent  Providence  has  blessed  these  States,  and  to  which  these 
our  brethren  are  by  nature  as  much  entitled  as  ourselves." 

The  next  Abolition  Society  was  that  of  Pennsylvania,  founded 
in  1787,  under  the  presidency  of  FRANKLIN.  Slave-holders 
were  expressly  excluded.  The  constitution  declares,  that  it  has 
pleased 

"  The  Creator  of  the  world  to  make  of  one  flesh  all  the  children  of 
men,"  and  that  it  is  the  special  duty  of  those  who  acknowledge  the 
obligations  of  Christianity,  to  use  such  means  as  are  in  their  power  to 
extend  the  blessings  of  freedom  "  to  every  part  of  our  race." 

Abolition  Societies  gradually  multiplied,  and  exercised  a  salu 
tary  influence  in  promoting  emancipation  at  the  North.  But 
they  were  not  confined  to  the  North ;  they  soon  sprang  up  in 
the  slave  States,  and  scattered  and  feeble  rays  of  light  began  to 
pierce  the  dense  cloud  which  brooded  over  the  southern  country. 
Unity  of  action  and  of  purpose  was  secured  by  triennial  con 
ventions  of  delegates  from  the  several  societies.  No  organized 
opposition  had  ever  been  offered  to  these  associations.  The 
moral  sense  of  the  community,  unperverted  by  colonization, 
would  not  then  have  tolerated  the  scenes  we  have  since  witnessed. 
The  respect  in  which  Abolition  Societies  were  held,  is  evinced 
by  the  following  extract  from  the  journals  of  Congress  : 

"  House  of  Representatives,  18th  Feb.  1809. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Speaker  be  requested  to  acknowledge  the 
receipt  and  acceptance  of  Clarkson's  History  of  Slavery,  presented  by 
the  American  Convention,  for  promoting  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and 
improving  the  condition  of  the  Africans,  and  that  the  said  work  be 
deposited  in  the  library." 

The  Speaker  accordingly  returned  an  official  letter  of  thanks 
to  the  convention. 

Only  three  months  before  Mr.  Harrison,  as  herald  of  the  Col 
onization  Society,  proclaimed  war  against  Abolition  Societies, 
the  convention  met  at  Baltimore,  the  capital  of  a  slave  State. 


114  JAY'S  WORKS. 

To  this  convention  delegates  or  communications  were  sent  from 
the  following  Abolition  Societies,  viz. : 

New  York,  Andover,  Mass., 

Khode  Island,  Williams  College,  Mass., 

Pennsylvania,  London  Co.,  Virginia, 

Western  Pennsylvania,  N.  Carolina,  with  40  branches, 

Maryland,  with  5  branches,        Delaware, 

Tennessee,  Centreville,  Penn., 

West  Tennessee,  Brownsville,  do. 

Munro  Co.,  Ohio, 

This  convention,  among  other  measures,  petitioned  Congress 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
exhorted  the  friends  of  abolition  to  use  their  efforts  to  procure 
"  the  removal  of  all  existing  legal  impediments  in  the  way  oi 
educating  the  people  of  color."  Such  was  the  promising  state 
of  public  feeling,  at  the  very  moment  when  the  Colonization 
Society  announced  its  crusade  against  Abolition.  The  vigor 
and  constancy  with  which  it  has  been  carried  on  to  the  present 
time,  are  known  to  all  who  have  watched  its  progress.  The 
Abolition  Societies  and  their  conventions  have  withered  under 
the  "  CENSURE  "  of  their  powerful  enemy,  and  have  shrunk  from 
public  notice.  Within  the  last  two  years,  they  have  been  par 
tially  succeeded  by  more  sturdy  associations,  named  Anti-Slavery 
Societies,  which,  instead  of  quailing  beneath  the  frowns  of  their 
foe,  have  dared  to  grapple  with  him  in  mortal  conflict,  and  to 
stake  the  hopes  of  freedom  on  the  issue.  If,  in  this  struggle, 
abolitionists  have  not  always  distinguished  themselves  by  their 
courteous  bearing,  let  it  be  recollected,  that  they  believe  the 
happiness  of  millions  depends  on  their  efforts ;  and,  also,  that 
by  their  haughty  adversary,  they  have  been  treated  as  wretches 
who  deserve  punishment ;  not  as  the  generous  and  disinterested 
champions  of  the  oppressed  and  friendless.  Let  us  observe  the 
manner  in  which  they  are  assailed  by  members  of  a  religious 
society. 

"  It  (the  Society)  is  nowise  mingled  or  confounded  with  the  broad- 
sweeping  views  of  &  few  fanatics  in  America,  who  would  urge  us  on  to 
the  sudden  and  total  abolition  of  slavery."  Afr.  Rep.,  Ill,  197. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  115 

"  Come,  ye  abolitionists,  away  with  your  wild  enthusiasm,  your  mis 
guided  philanthropy."  Afr.  Rep.,  VII,  100. 

"  Kesolved,  that  we  view  all  attempts  to  prejudice  the  public  mind, 
or  excite  the  popular  feeling,  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  as  unwise  and 
injurious,  and  adapted  to  perpetuate  the  evil  which  it  is  proposed  to 
eradicate,"  Col.  Meeting  at  Northampton,  Mass.  Afr.  Rep.,  VHJ,  283. 

After  a  public  discussion  of  the  colonization  scheme  in  Utica, 
the  Common  Council  came  to  the  rescue  of  the  Society,  by  dis 
charging  resolutions  against  the  abolitionists.  For  example  : 

"  Whereas,  certain  individuals  now  in  our  city,  are  disturbing  the 
peace  of  the  good  citizens  thereof,  by  inculcating  sentiments  which  we 
deem  demoralizing  in  themselves,  and  little  short  of  TREASON  towards 
the  government  of  our  country,"  &c., 

"  Resolved,  that,  in  the  opinion  of  this  meeting,  it  is  the  solemn 
duty  of  every  patriot  and  philanthropist,  to  discountenance  and  OPPOSE 
the  efforts  of  Anti-Slavery  Societies."  Col.  Soc.  of  Middlctown,  Conn. 
6th  March,  1834. 

It  would  have  been,  of  course,  unconstitutional  to  aid  these 
efforts ;  but  it  seems  the  Society  had  full  authority  to  oppose 
them.  In  short,  with  colonization  societies,  every  thing  is  con 
stitutional  that  is  expedient,  and  nothing  that  is  not. 

, "  The  emancipation,  to  which  this  resolution  directs  your  attention, 
is  not  that  unconstitutional  and  dangerous  emancipation,  contemplated 
by  a  few  visionary  enthusiasts,  and  a  still  fewer  number  of  reckless 
incendiaries  among  us."  Speech  of  Chancellor  Walworlh,  at  Col.  Meet 
ing  in  New  York,  9th  Oct.,  1833. 

"  I  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity,  to  enter  my  solemn  protest 
against  the  attempts  which  are  making  by  a  few  fanatics.  Let  us  talk 
no  more  of  nullification ;  the  doctrine  of  immediate  emancipation  is  a 
direct  and  palpable  nullification  of  that  Constitution  which  we  have 
SWORN  to  support."  Speech  of  D.  B.  Ogden  at  New  York  Colonization 
Meeting. 

"  We  owe  it  to  ourselves  not  to  remain  silent  spectators  while  this 
WILD  TIRE  is  running  its  course.  We  owe  it  to  those  misguided  men, 
(the  abolitionists,)  to  interpose  and  save  them  and  their  country  from 
the  fatal  effects  of  their  mad  speculations."  Speech  of  Hon.  T.  Freling- 
huysen,  V.  President,  before  Am.  Col.  Society,  21st  Jan.,  1834. 

We  are  not  informed  which  article  of  the  constitution  of  the 
Society  imposes  on  its  members  the  onerous  duty  mentioned  by 
the  honorable  gentleman. 

The  abolitionists  in  New  York  gave  notice  of  a  meeting  for 


116  JAY'S  WORKS. 

forming  a  City  Anti-Slavery  Society.  In  reference  to  this 
notice,  the  chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  New 
York  Colonization  Society,  Mr.  Stone,  published  in  his  paper, 
2d  of  Oct.,  1833,  the  following  from  a  correspondent : 

"  Is  it  possible  that  our  citizens  can  look  quietly  on,  while  the  flames 
of  discord  are  rising,  —  while  even  our  pulpits  are  sought  to  be  used  for 
the  base  PUEPOSE  of  encouraging  scenes  of  bloodshed\n  our  land  ?  If 
we  do,  can  we  look  our  Southern  brethren  in  the  face  and  say,  we  are 
opposed  to  interfering  with  their  rights  ?  No,  we  cannot."  * 

The  hint  thus  kindly  given,  was  readily  taken,  and  a  mob  of 
five  thousand  scattered  the  abolitionists.  After  another  mob,  in 
July,  had  assaulted  the  dwellings  and  temples  of  abolitionists, 
this  officer  of  a  Christian  benevolent  society,  thus  stated  the 
CONDITION  on  which  abolitionists  might  be  permitted  to  enjoy 
the  common  rights  of  American  citizens,  security  of  person  and 
freedom  of  speech,  the  press,  and  religious  worship. 

"  While,  then,  our  civil  authorities  should  receive  the  aid  of  every 
good  citizen,  in  their  efforts  to  put  down  the  mobs  now  nightly  engaged 
in  deeds  of  violence,  yet  there  should  be  a  distinct  understanding,  that 
the  protection  of  law,  and  the  aid  of  the  military,  can  only  be  enjoyed 
or  expected,  ON  CONDITION  that  the  causes  of  these  mischiefs  shall  be 
abated,  and  the  outrages  upon  public  feeling,  from  the  FORUM,  the 
PULPIT,  and  the  PRESS,  shall  no  more  be  repeated  by  these  reckless 
incendiaries."  Commercial  Advertiser,  llth  July,  1834. 

Another  colonization  editorf  published  the  same  day,  and 
while  the  mob  were  committing  their  grossest  outrages,  the  fol 
lowing  article : 

"  Now  we  tell  them,  (the  abolitionists,)  that  when  they  openly  and 
publicly  promulgate  doctrines  which  outrage  public  feeling,  they  have 
no  right  to  demand  protection  of  the  people  they  insult.  Ought  not, 
we  ask,  our  city  authorities  to  make  them  understand  this  —  to  tell 
them  that  they  prosecute  their  TREASONABLE  and  BEASTLY  plans  at 
their  own  peril?"  2V.  Y.  Courier  and  Enquirer,  llth  July,  1834. 


*  This  communication  was  accompanied  by  an  editorial  admission  of  the 
civil  rights  of  abolitionists.  It  is  to  be  regretted,  that  the  editor,  as  will  be 
seen  by  the  next  quotation,  afterwards  proposed  a  condition  on  which  alone, 
in  his  opinion,  those  rights  should  be  protected. 

fMr.  James  Watson  Webb. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  117 

On  conditions  similar  to  those  proposed  by  these  gentlemen, 
the  Roman  emperors  were  ever  ready  to  afford  protection 
to  the  Christian  martyrs ;  nor  did  the  Spanish  Inquisition 
require  more,  than  that  none  should  "  promulgate  doctrines  " 
it  disapproved. 

Far  be  it  from  us  to  insinuate,  that  the  conduct  of  these  two 
editors  was  in  conformity  with  the  advice  or  wishes  of  any  respect 
able  colonizationists ;  and  candor  requires  the  acknowledgment, 
that  we  have  never  heard  it  justified ;  but  it  is  unfortunately 
true,  that  the  insults  they  have  poured  upon  abolitionists,  have 
been  countenanced  by  the  example  of  gentlemen  from  whom 
better  things  were  expected.  All  this  violence  and  obloquy  are 
not  without  an  object ;  and  that  object  is  INTIMIDATION.  Utterly 
vain  is  the  hope  of  maintaining  the  cause  of  colonization,  or  of 
suppressing  that  of  abolition,  by  discussion.  In  every  instance 
in  which  colonizationists  have  ventured  to  meet  their  opponents 
in  public  disputation,  they  have  invariably  retired  with  diminished 
strength.  Hence  great  efforts  have  been  made  by  coloniza 
tionists,  and  by  the  advocates  of  slavery,  to  prevent  the  public 
from  ever  listening  to  the  facts  and  arguments  adduced  by  the 
abolitionists.  After  a  mob  of  five  thousand  had  assembled  to 
prevent  the  formation  of  the  New  York  Anti-Slavery  Society  — 
after  the  most  unfounded  calumnies  had  been  spread  through 
the  community  against  its  members,  the  Society  published  an 
address,  explaining  their  real  sentiments  and  objects.  One 
would  have  thought  it  an  act  of  common  justice,  to  give  this 
address  a  candid  perusal ;  but  such  an  act  would  not  have  been 
expedient,  and  accordingly  the  zealous  editor  of  the  Commercial 
Advertiser  thus  endeavored  to  prevent  it : 


vion 


"  We  are  quite  sure  that  a  discerning  public  will  consign  it  to  obli- 
ion,  by  abstaining  from  a  purchase  of  the  pestilent  document.  Their 
curiosity,  we  hope,  will  not  overstep  their  discretion,  in  furthering  the 
purposes  of  the  authors  by  its  dissemination.  Let  this  flagitious 
address  descend  to  the  tomb  of  the  Capulets.  The  address  in  extenso, 
we  have  not  read." 

The  abolitionists,  on  the  contrary,  are  so  far  from  fearing  the 
effects  of  discussion,  that  they  are  ever  anxious  to  promote  it  ; 
11 


118  JAY'S  WORKS. 

and  when  an  acrimonious  colonization  pamphlet*  appeared 
against  them,  they  provokingly  advertised  it  for  sale,  and  urged 
the  public  to  read  it.f 

In  the  war  now  waging  between  the  abolitionists  and  coloni- 
zationists,  a  third  party  has  come  to  the  aid  of  the  latter.  Those 
who  maintain  the  sinfulness  of  slavery,  and  the  safety  and  duty 
of  immediate  emancipation,  plant  themselves  on  scriptural  ground, 
and  urge  the  promises,  and  threats,  and  commands  of  the  word 
of  God.  They  professedly  act  as  Christians,  and  only  as  Chris 
tians  ;  and  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  the  infidel  portion  of  the 
community  view  with  indifference  an  opportunity  of  wounding 
Christianity  through  its  zealous  disciples.  At  the  same  time, 
the  absence^of  Christian  motive  as  a  principle  of  the  colonization 
scheme,  and  the  countenance  given  by  that  scheme  to  most  un 
christian  prejudices,  naturally  invite  antichristian  support.  Cer 
tain  it  is,  that  many  infidel  newspapers  are  zealous  advocates  of 
colonization,  and  that  the  mobs  of  our  cities  are  always  ready  to 
espouse  its  cause. 

There  is  no  evidence  that,  with  the  exception  of  certain 
editors,  the  mobs  which  disgraced  the  city  of  New  York  the 
last  summer  were  instigated  by  members  of  the  Society ;  yet 
these  mobs  were  its  avowed  champions.  The  first  mob  assem 
bled  on  the  9th  of  July,  at  the  Chatham  street  chapel,  the  place 
in  which  some  anti-slavery  meetings  had  recently  been  held ; 
and  breaking  open  the  doors,  took  possession  of  the  building. 
They  then  organized,  and  appointing  a  chairman,  passed  resolu 
tions  approving  of  the  Colonization  Society  ;  and  by  a  formal  vote, 
adjourned  till  the  next  meeting  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society,  —  a 
very  significant  hint.  The  following  guarded  notice  of  this 
transaction,  appeared  the  next  day  in  one  of  the  journals. 

"From  the  non-assemblage  of  the  persons  who  had  designed  to 
occupy  the  chapel,  it  was  evident  that  the  objects  of  the  meeting  had 
been  abandoned,  and  the  friends  of  colonization  thereupon  entered, 
organized  a  meeting,  passed  resolutions  in  favor  of  their  own  opinions, 
and  peaceably  dispersed."  New  York  Daily  Advertiser. 

*  Reese's  Review. 

f  See  the  New  York  Emancipator. 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  119 

The  mob  did  indeed  adjourn  as  a  colonization  meeting,  but 
they  had  too  much  business  on  their  hands  to  disperse.  They 
immediately  proceeded  to  vindicate  the  honor  of  the  American 
name,  by  mobbing  the  Bowery  Theatre,  in  revenge  for  some 
insulting  expressions  said  to  have  been  used  by  an  Engiish 
actor. 

"  After  finishing  their  work  at  the  Bowery  Theatre,  the  mob, 
(says  the  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce,)  in  a  very  excited 
state,  repaired  to  the  residence  of  Lewis  Tappan,  (a  prominent 
abolitionist,)  and  attacked  it  with  bricks  and  stones.  The  door, 
window-blinds,  shutters,  &c.,  were  soon  demolished,  after  which 
the  mob  entered,  broke  up  the  furniture,  and  made  a  bonfire  of 
it  in  the  street."  Such  was  the  commencement  of  four  days  of 
riot  and  outrage,  by  the  admirers  of  "  the  benevolent  coloniza 
tion  system."  The  managers  of  the  city  Colonization  Society, 
mortified  at  the  character  and  conduct  of  their  new  allies,  pub 
lished  a  card  declaring  that  the  "  tumultuous  meetings "  at 
which  certain  resolutions  had  been  passed,  approving  the  objects 
of  the  New  York  Colonization  Society,  "  had  been  held  without 
any  previous  knowledge  of  the  Board,"  and  recommending  to 
every  friend  of  the  cause  of  colonization  to  abstain  "  from  all 
participation  in  proceedings  subversive  of  the  rights  of  individuals, 
or  in  violation  of  the  public  peace."  When  before  have  the 
friends  of  a  religious  and  benevolent  cause  needed  such  a  recom 
mendation  ? 

The  Journal  of  Commerce,  a  colonization  paper,  assigns 
infidelity  as  one  of  the  causes  of  the  riots. 

"  It  was  noticed,  (it  observes,)  as  a  fact  full  of  instruction,  that  last 
Sunday  night,  when  many  of  the  churches  and  lecture  rooms  were 
closed  for  fear  of  the  mob,  Tammany  Hall  was  brilliantly  lighted  up 
for  the  meeting  of  infidels,  who  carried  on  their  mummery  without  the 
slightest  apprehension  of  danger.  The  buildings  which  have  been 
attacked,  are  six  churches,  (belonging  to  four  different  denominations,) 
one  school-house,  occupied  as  a  church,  three  houses  of  clergymen,  a 
house  and  store  occupied  by  elders  of  churches,  and  a  number  of 
houses  occupied  by  colored  families.  Thus,  with  the  exception  of 
some  colored  persons,  the  vengeance  of  the  mob  has  been  exclusively 
directed  against  churches,  ministers  and  elders.  At  the  sacking  of  Mr. 
Tappan's  house,  a  fellow  was  heard  to  say,  that  every  rascal  of  a  church 


120  JAY'S  WORKS. 

member  ought  to  be  thrown  off  the  dock,  or  to  that  effect.     We  think, 
therefore,  we  see  inscribed  on  the  banner  of  this  guilty  throng,  ENMITY 

TO    THE    CROSS    OF    CHRIST." 

Yet  this  guilty  throng  commenced  its  operations  with  lauding 
the  Colonization  Society. 

In  Utica,  after  a  public  discussion  on  Colonization,  a  mob 
assembled  and  burned  in  effigy  a  clergyman  who  had  taken  part 
against  the  Society ;  and  also  a  layman  who  had  become  dis 
tinguished  for  his  zeal  in  the  temperance  cause ;  and  a  bundle  of 
Temperance  Recorders  was  committed  to  the  flames. 

The  following  is  from  the  New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer, 
12th  of  May,  1834,  and  is  part  of  an  article  in  defence  of  the 
Colonization  Society,  and  in  vituperation  of  the  abolitionists. 

"  Colleges  and  institutions  are  every  year  founded,  not  for  the  pur 
poses  of  general  education,  but  to  initiate  a  new  race  of  monks  and 
fanatics  in  the  arts  and  mysteries  of  clerical  ambition,  to  teach  them  how 
best  to  subjugate  the  human  mind,  and  render  female  weakness  subser 
vient  to  well-disciplined  Jesuitism.  One  half  of  our  colleges  are  nothing 
more  than  seminaries  for  educating  uncompromising  bigots,"  &c.,  &c. 

In  this  very  same  article,  we  are  assured  "  the  Colonization 
Society  holds  out  the  ONLY  rational  and  practicable  mode  of  bring 
ing  about  the  emancipation  of  the  blacks  ; "  and  we  are  warned 
against  the  "  accursed,  and  disorganizing,  and  incendiary  de 
vices,"  of  the  abolitionists. 

Soon  after  the  mobs,  a  poem  was  published,  entitled,  "  Fanat 
icism  Unveiled."  The  author,  in  his  advertisement,  declaims 
against  the  "  crusade  which  is  now  waged  by  a  few  wretched 
fanatics  against  the  Colonization  Society."  Of  the  religious 
character  of  this  poetical  champion  of  the  Society,  some  estimate 
may  be  made  from  the  following  lines  : 

"  And  do  not  dunces  spend  their  cash  on 
Such  things  as  we  have  brought  in  fashion  ? 
Fictitious  tales  in  aid  of  piety, 
Invented  for  the  Tract  Society. 
Sectarian  Seminaries  made 
To  teach  the  true  fanatic  trade  ; 
And  schools  where  infancy  is  told, 
That  while  one  world  is  paved  with  gold, 
Another  lying  somewhat  lower, 
With  children's  skulls  is  sprinkled  o'er." 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  121 

The  Society  unquestionably  comprises  a  vast  number  of  as 
pure  and  devoted  Christians  as  can  be  found  in  this  or  any  other 
country ;  and  we  are  fully  persuaded,  that  they  verily  believe, 
that  in  supporting  colonization,  they  are  doing  God  service. 
The  zealous  cooperation  they  are  now  receiving  from  persons  of 
very  opposite  character  from  themselves,  should  lead  them  to 
inquire  whether  they  may  not  be  mistaken. 

It  certainly  does  not  follow  that  a  system  must  be  bad,  be 
cause  bad  men  support  it ;  but  it  does  follow,  that  when  mobs  and 
infidels  espouse  a  particular  object,  it  is  because  that  object  is 
recommended  to  them  by  other  than  religious  considerations. 
Yet  colonizationists  are  fond  of  representing  their  Society  as  a 
religious  institution ;  and  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel  are 
earnestly  urged  to  preach  annual  sermons  in  its  behalf. 

That  multitudes  of  religious  men  belong  to  the  Society  is  not 
denied,  but  the  participation  of  such  men  in  an  object,  does  not 
necessarily  render  it  a  religious  object:  otherwise  the  slave 
trade  was  a  Christian  commerce,  because  John  Newton  was  a 
slave-trader;  and  Free-Masonry  must  be  a  holy  fraternity, 
since  it  can  boast  the  names  of  more  good  men  than  were  ever 
enrolled  in  the  ranks  of  colonization.  But  in  what  sense  can  the 
Society  be  termed  a  religious  one  ?  It  is  not  professedly  founded 
on  any  one  principle  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  It  exercises 
no  one  act  of  benevolence  towards  the  free  blacks  in  this 
country ;  and  in  transporting  them  to  Africa,  it  is  by  its  own  * 
confession  removing  nuisances.  It  takes  no  measures  to  Chris 
tianize  Africa,  but  landing  on  its  shores  an  ignorant  and  vicious 
population.  It  employs  no  missionary,  it  sends  no  Bible,  and  it 
cannot  point  to  a  single  native,  converted  to  the  faith  of  Jesus 
through  its  instrumentality.  On  the  contrary,  may  we  not,  in 
reference  to  the  facts  disclosed  in  the  preceding  pages,  affirm, 
without  the  imputation  of  bigotry  or  prejudice,  that  the  general 
influence  of  the  Society  is  decidedly  anti-christian  ?  We  have 
seen  that  it  practically  tends  to  the  debasement  and  persecution 
of  the  free  blacks ;  to  the  hardening  of  the  consciences  of  the 
slave-holders,  and  to  the  indefinite  continuance  of  slavery. 

11* 


122  JAY'S  WORKS. 

The  objects  of  the  Society,  as  stated  in  the  declarations  of  its 
orators,  are  of  such  vast  importance,  and  such  god-like  benevo 
lence,  that  it  is  no  wonder  good  men  have  been  so  dazzled  by 
the  gorgeous  visions  presented  to  their  imaginations,  as  to  have 
omitted  to  scrutinize  the  machinery  by  which  these  visions  are 
to  be  realized. 

No  one  surely  needs  an  apology  for  having  believed  in  coloni 
zation,  when  WILBERFORCE  could  thus  express  himself: 

"  You  have  gladdened  my  heart  by  convincing  me,  that  sanguine  as 
had  been  my  hopes  of  the  happy  effects  to  be  produced  by  your  insti 
tution,  all  my  anticipations  are  scanty  and  cold  compared  with  the 
reality."  Letter  to  Mr.  Cresson.  15th  Rep.,  p.  15. 

No  one  surely  needs  to  blush  at  acknowledging  that  he  has 
been  deceived  in  the  Society  since  WILBERFORCE  placed  his 
name  at  the  head  of  a  protest  against  it.  The  following  ex 
tract  from  this  protest  will  show  how  truly  the  Society  is  noiv 
estimated  by  British  philanthropists. 

"  Our  objections  to  it  are  briefly  these :  while  we  believe  its  pretexts 
to  be  delusive,  we  are  convinced  that  its  real  effects  are  of  the  most 
dangerous  nature.  It  takes  its  root  from  a  cruel  prejudice  and  aliena 
tion  in  the  whites  of  America,  against  the  colored  people,  slave  or  free. 
This  being  its  source,  the  effects  are  what  might  be  expected  —  that  it 
fosters  and  increases  the  spirit  of  caste,  already  so  unhappily  predomi 
nant  —  that  it  widens  the  breach  between  the  two  races  —  exposes  the 
•colored  people  to  great  practical  persecution,  in  order  is  force  them  to 
emigrate :  and  finally  is  calculated  to  swallow  up  and  divert  that  feeling 
which  America,  as  a  Christian  and  a  free  country,  connot  but  enter 
tain,  that  slavery  is  alike  incompatible  with  the  law  of  God,  and  the 
well  being  of  man,  whether  of  the  enslaver  or  the  enslaved.  We  must 
be  understood  utterly  to  repudiate  the  principles  of  the  American  Colo 
nization  Society" 

The  opponents  of  slavery  in  England,  as  well  as  here,  at  first 
hailed  the  Society  as  an  auxiliary,  and  the  anti-slavery  societies 
there,  in  the  warmth  of  their  zeal,  began  to  remit  contributions 
to  its  funds  :  by  these  same  people  the  Society  is  now  regarded 
with  detestation.  Probably  no  religious  periodical  possesses  in 
an  equal  degree  the  confidence  of  the  religious  community  here, 
as  the  London  Christian  Observer.  The  Observer  formerly 


AMERICAN    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY.  123 

commended  the  Society.     Hear  the  present  sentiments  of  its 
late  editor,  the  distinguished  Z.  Macauley,  Esq.,  M.  P. 

"  The  unchristian  prejudice  of  color,  which  alone  has  given  birth  to 
the  Colonization  Society,  though  varnished  over  with  other  more  plausi 
ble  pretences,  and  veiled  under  a  profession  of  Christian  regard  for  the 
temporal  and  spiritual  interests  of  the  negro,  which  is  belied  by  the 
whole  course  of  its  reasonings,  and  the  spirit  of  its  measures,  is  so 
detestable  in  itself,  that  I  think  it  ought  not  to  be  tolerated;  but 
on  the  contrary,  ought  to  be  denounced  and  opposed  by  all  humane, 
and  especially  all  pious  persons  in  this  country."  Letter,  l±th  July, 
1833,  to  Mr.  Garrison. 

For  a  quarter  of  a  century,  "William  Allen,  a  London  Quaker, 
has  been  prominent  in  every  good  work,  and  his  name  is  familiar 
to  all  acquainted  with  the  great  catholic  institutions  of  England. 
This  eminent  and  zealous  philanthropist  thus  writes : 

"  Having  heard  thy  exposition  of  the  origin  and  main  object  of  the 
American  Colonization  Society,  at  the  meeting  on  the  13th  inst,  at 
Exeter  Hall,  and  having  read  their  own  printed  documents,  I  scarcely 
know  how  adequately  to  express  my  surprise  and  indignation,  that 
my  correspondents  in  North  America  should  not  have  informed  me 
of  the  real  principles  of  the  said  Society  ;  and  also,  that  Elliott  Cresson, 
knowing  as  he  must  have  known  the  abominable  sentiments  it  has 
printed  and  published,  should  have  condescended  to  become  its  agent." 
Letter,  loth  of  1th  Month,  1833. 

Mr.  Buxton,  the  successor  of  Mr.  Wilberforce  as  the  parlia 
mentary  leader  in  the  cause  of  abolition,  thus  expresses  himself: 

"  My  views  of  the  Colonization  Society  you  are  aware  of.  They  do 
not  fall  far  short  of  those  expressed  by  my  friend  Mr.  Cropper,  when 
he  termed  its  objects  diabolical."  Letter  of  July  12th,  1833. 

But  is  it  only  in  Britain  that  good  men  have  found  themselves 
disappointed  in  the  Society  ?  Who  compose  our  present  anti- 
slavery  societies  ?  Pious,  conscientious  men,  who,  with  scarcely 
an  exception,  were  formerly  advocates  of  colonization.  A  cler 
gyman  of  Massachusetts,  in  the  following  passage,  expresses 
the  sentiments  of  a  numerous  and  increasing  body. 

"  I  have  been  constrained  to  withdraw  my  confidence  and  cooperation 
from  this  scheme.  It  is  a  scheme  in  which  I  was  once  deeply  in 
terested.  I  have  spoken  and  preached,  and  written  and  taken  con 
tributions  in  its  behalf.  I  did  not  then  understand  the  real  nature 
and  tendency  of  the  scheme.  I  meant  well  in  espousing  it,  but  I  now 
see  my  error  and  my  sin ;  and  though  it  was  a  sin  of  ignorance,  I 
desire  to  repent  of  it." 


124  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Almost  daily  do  we  hear  of  colonizationists  awaking  as  from 
a  dream,  and  expressing  their  astonishment  and  regret  at  the 
delusion  into  which  they  had  fallen. 

To  the  Christian  members  of  the  Society,  we  would  now  ad 
dress  ourselves,  and  ask,  Have  we  not  proved  enough  to  induce 
you  to  pause,  to  examine,  and  to  pray,  before  you  longer  lend 
your  names,  and  contribute  your  funds  to  the  purposes  of  coloni 
zation  ?  Do  no  secret  misgivings  of  conscience  now  trouble  you  ? 
and  are  you  perfectly  sure  that  in  supporting  the  Society,  you 
are  influenced  by  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel,  and  not  by  preju 
dice  against  an  unhappy  portion  of  the  human  family  ?  If  on  a 
full  investigation  of  the  subject,  you  discover  that  colonization  is 
not  what  you  believed  and  hoped  it  was,  remember  that  it  is 
your  duty  to  obviate,  as  far  as  possible,  by  a  frank  and  open 
declaration  of  your  opinion,  the  evil  your  example  has  done. 
Be  not  ashamed,  be  not  slow  to  follow  Wilberforce  in  entering 
your  protest  against  the  Society.  If  that  Society  leads  to  the 
degradation  and  oppression  of  the  poor  colored  man  —  if  it  re 
sists  every  effort  to  free  the  slave  —  if  it  misleads  the  con 
science  of  the  slave-holder,  you  are  bound,  your  God  requires 
you  to  oppose  it,  not  in  secret,  but  before  the  world.  Soon  will 
you  stand  at  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ;  there  will  you  meet 
the  free  negro,  the  slave,  and  the  master,  —  take  care  lest  they 
all  appear  as  witnesses  against  you. 


PART    II 

AMERICAN  ANTI-SLAVERY  SOCIETY. 


CHAPTER    I. 

PRINCIPLES     OF     THE       AMERICAN     ANTI-SLAVERY     SOCIETY 

CHARACTER    OF    AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

THE  principles  professed  by  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Soci 
ety,  are  set  forth  in  the  following  articles  of  its  Constitution,  viz. : 

ARTICLE  2.  The  object  of  this  Society  is  the  entire  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  United  States.  While  it  admits  that  each  State,  in  which 
slavery  exists,  has  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  exclu 
sive  right  to  legislate  in  regard  to  its  abolition  in  that  State,  it  shall 
aim  to  convince  all  our  fellow-citizens,  by  arguments  addressed  to  their 
understandings  and  consciences,  that  slave-holding  is  a  heinous  crime 
in  the  sight  of  God ;  and  that  the  duty,  safety,  and  best  interests  of  all 
concerned,  require  its  immediate  abandonment,  without  expatriation. 
The  Society  will  also  endeavor  in  a  constitutional  way  to  influence 
Congress  to  put  an  end  to  the  domestic  slave-trade,  and  to  abolish 
slavery  in  all  those  portions  of  our  common  country  which  come  under 
its  control,  especially  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  likewise  to  pre 
vent  the  extension  of  it  to  any  State  that  may  hereafter  be  admitted  to 
the  Union. 

ARTICLE  3.  This  Society  shall  aim  to  elevate  the  character  and 
condition  of  the  people  of  color,  by  encouraging  their  intellectual, 
moral  and  religious  improvement,  and  by  removing  public  prejudice ; 
that  thus  they  may,  according  to  their  intellectual  and  moral  worth, 
share  an  equality  with  the  whites,  of  civil  and  religious  privileges ;  but 


126  JAY'S  WORKS. 

the  Society  will  never  in  any  way,  countenance  the  oppressed  in  vin 
dicating  their  rights,  by  resorting  to  physical  force. 

ARTICLE  4.  Any  person  who  consents  to  the  principles  of  this  Con 
stitution,  who  contributes  to  the  funds  of  this  Society,  and  is  not  a 
slave-holder,  may  be  a  member  of  this  Society,  and  shall  be  entitled  to 
vote  at  its  meetings. 

Here  we  have  great  moral  principles  frankly  and  unequivocally 
avowed;  the  objects  to  be  pursued  are  distinctly  stated;  and 
none  are  permitted  to  join  in  the  pursuit  of  these  objects  without 
assenting  to  the  principles  which  avowedly  render  their  at 
tainment  desirable.  The  whole  structure  of  the  Society,  there 
fore,  is  totally  different  from  the  Colonization  Society ;  this 
being  founded  on  principle,  that  on  expediency;  this  availing 
itself  only  of  certain  professed  motives,  that  inviting  the  cooper 
ation  of  motives  of  all  sorts,  however  contradictory. 

In  order  to  judge  of  the  fitness  of  the  objects  contemplated  by 
the  Society,  we  must  first  inquire  into  the  soundness  of  the 
principles  by  which  they  are  recommended. 

The  first  great  principle  of  the  Society,  and  indeed  the  one 
from  which  all  the  others  are  deduced,  is  the  sinfulness  of  slavery. 
To  determine  whether  slavery  as  it  exists  in  the  United  States 
is  sinful,  we  must  know  what  it  is.  Where  an  institution  is 
unavoidably  liable  to  great  abuses,  those  abuses  may  fairly  be 
taken  in  account  in  estimating  its  true  character ;  but  in  order  to 
avoid  all  captious  objections,  we  will  now  inquire,  what  are  the 
lawful,  or  rather  legal  features  of  American  slavery,  and  we 
will  leave  wholly  out  of  view,  all  acts  of  oppression  and  cruelty 
not  expressly  sanctioned  by  law.  The  following  definitions  of 
American  slavery,  are,  it  will  be  perceived,  from  high  authority : 

"  A  slave  is  one  who  is  in  the  power  of  a  master  to  whom  he  belongs. 
The  master  may  sell  him,  dispose  of  his  person,  his  industry,  his  labor; 
he  can  do  nothing,  possess  nothing,  nor  acquire  anything  but  which 
must  belong  to  his  master."  Louisiana  Code,  Art.  3. 

"  Slaves  shall  be  deemed,  tak'en,  reputed  and  adjudged  to  be  chattels 
personal  in  the  hands  of  their  masters  and  possessors,  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  whatsoever."  Laws  of  South  Carolina  —  Brevard's  Digest, 
229. 

It  will  be  observed  that  these  definitions  apply  to  slaves,  with 
out  distinction  of  sex  or  age. 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  127 

But  not  only  are  those  now  in  servitude,  but  their  children 
after  them,  the  subjects  of  these  definitions. 

The  law  of  South  Carolina  says  of  slaves,  "  all  their  issue 
and  offspring  born  or  to  be  born,  shall  be,  and  they  are  hereby 
declared  to  be  and  remain  FOREVER  HEREAFTER  absolute  slaves, 
and  shall  follow  the  condition  of  the  mother." 

Slavery  is  not  confined  to  color.  Mr.  Paxton,  a  Virginia 
writer,  declares  that  "  the  best  blood  in  Virginia  flows  in  the 
veins  of  the  slaves."  In  the  description  lately  given  of  a  fugitive 
slave  in  the  public  papers,  it  was  stated,  "  He  has  sometimes 
been  mistaken  for  a  white  man."  The  following  from  a  Missouri 
paper  proves  that  a  white  man  may  without  a  mistake  be  ad 
judged  a  slave. 

"  A  case  of  a  slave  suing  for  his  freedom,  was  tried  a  few  days  since 
in  Lincoln  county,  of  which  the  following  is  a  brief  statement  of  the 
particulars.  A  youth  of  about  ten  years  of  age  sued  for  his  freedom 
on  the  ground  that  he  was  a  free  white  person.  The  court  granted  his 
petition  to  sue  as  a  pauper  upon  inspection  of  his  person.  Upon  his 
trial  before  the  jury  he  was  examined  by  the  jury  and  by  two  learned 
physicians,  all  of  whom  concurred  in  the  opinion  that  very  little  if  any 
trace  of  negro  blood  could  be  discovered  by  any  of  the  external  ap 
pearances.  All  the  physiological  marks  of  distinction  which  charac 
terize  the  African  descent  had  disappeared. 

"  His  skin  was  fair,  his  hair  soft,  straight,  fine  and  white,  his  eyes 
blue,  but  rather  disposed  to  the  hazle-nut  color ;  nose  prominent,  the 
lips  small  and  completely  covering  the  teeth,  his  head  round  and 
well  formed,  forehead  high  and  prominent,  the  ears  large,  the  tibia  of 
the  leg  straight,  the  feet  hollow.  Notwithstanding  these  evidences  of 
his  claims,  he  was  proven  to  be  a  descendant  of  a  mulatto  woman,  and 
that  his  progenitors  on  his  mother's  side  had  been  and  still  were  slaves ; 
consequently,  he  was  found  to  be  a  SLAVE." 

The  laws  of  South  Carolina  and  Virginia  expressly  recognize 
Indian  slaves. 

Not  only  do  the  laws  acknowledge  and  protect  existing  slavery, 
but  they  provide  for  reducing  free  persons  to  hereditary  bondage. 
In  South  Carolina,  fines  are  imposed  on  free  negroes  for  certain 
offences,  and  in  default  of  payment,  they  are  made  slaves.  If  a 
colored  citizen  of  any  other  State  enters  Georgia,  he  is  fined, 
and  if  he  cannot  raise  the  money,  he  is  sentenced  to  perpetual 
slavery,  and  his  children  after  him.  In  Maryland,  if  a  free  negro 
marries  a  white,  the  negro  becomes  a  slave.  In  almost  every 


128  JAY'S  WORKS. 

slave  State,  if  a  free  negro  cannot  prove  that  he  is  free,  he  is  by 
law  sold  at  public  auction  as  a  slave  for  life.  This  is  both  law 
and  practice  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  with  the  sanction 
of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  In  no  civilized  country 
but  the  slave  States,  are  children  punished  for  the  crimes  of 
their  parents  ;  but  in  these,  the  children  of  free  Hacks,  to  the 
latest  posterity,  are  condemned  to  servitude  for  the  trivial  of 
fences,  and  often  for  the  most  innocent  act  of  their  ancestors. 

It  necessarily  follows  from  the  legal  definitions  we  have  given 
of  a  slave,  that  he  is  subjected  to  an  absolute  and  irresponsible 
despotism. 

The  master  has  in  point  of  fact  the  same  power  over  his 
slave  that  he  has  over  his  horse.  Some  few  laws  there  may  be, 
forbidding  the  master  to  treat  his  slave  with  cruelty,  and  so  the 
common  law  everywhere  forbids  cruelty  to  beasts  ;  but  it  is  far 
easier  to  enforce  the  latter  than  the  former.  Any  spectator  of 
cruelty  to  a  beast,  may  ordinarily  be  a  witness  against  the 
offender ;  but  a  slave  may  be  mutilated  or  murdered  with  im 
punity  in  the  presence  of  hundreds,  provided  their  complexions 
are  colored ;  and  even  should  the  crime  be  proved  by  competent 
testimony,  the  master  is  to  be  tried  by  a  court  and  jury  who  are 
all  interested  in  maintaining  the  supreme  authority  of  slave 
holders.  But  although  no  laws  can  in  fact  restrain  the  power 
of  the  master,  yet  laws  to  a  certain  degree  indicate  what  kind  of 
treatment  is  tolerated  by  public  opinion.  Thus  when  we  find 
the  laws  of  South  Carolina  limiting  the  time  which  slaves  may 
be  compelled  to  labor,  to  fifteen  hours  a  day,  we  may  form  some 
opinion  of  the  amount  of  toil  which  Southern  masters  think  it 
right  to  inflict  upon  the  slaves ;  and  when  we  recollect  that  the 
laws  of  Maryland,  Virginia  and  Georgia,  forbid  that  the  crimi 
nals  in  their  penitentiaries  shall  be  made  to  labor  more  than  ten 
hours  a  day,  we  discover  the  relative  place  which  white  felons 
and  unoffending  slaves  occupy  in  the  sympathies  of  slave-holders. 

The  slave  is,  at  all  times,  liable  to  be  punished  at  the  pleasure 
of  his  master ;  and  although  the  law  does  not  warrant  him  in 
murdering  the  slave,  it  expressly  justifies  him  in  killing  him,  if 
he  dares  to  resist ;  that  is,  if  the  slave  does  not  submit  to  any 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  129 

chastisement  which  a  brutal  master  may  of  his  sovereign  pleasure 
choose  to  inflict,  he  may  legally  be  shot  through  the  head. 

In  South  Carolina,  if  a  slave  be  killed  "  on  a  sudden  heat  or 
passion,  or  by  undue  correction"  the  murderer  is  to  pay  a  fine 
and  be  imprisoned  six  months.  What  would  be  thought  of  such 
a  punishment  for  the  murder  of  a  white  apprentice  ? 

In  Missouri,  a  master  is  by  law  expressly  authorized  to  im 
prison  his  slave  during  pleasure,  and  thus  may  a  human  being 
be  legally  incarcerated  for  life  without  trial,  or  even  the  allega 
tion  of  a  crime. 

The  despotism  of  the  slave-holder,  be  it  remembered,  is  a 
negotiable  despotism ;  it  is  daily  and  hourly  bought  and  sold, 
and  may  at  any  moment  be  delegated  to  the  most  brutal  of  the 
species. 

The  slave,  being  himself  property,  can  own  no  property.  He 
may  labor  fifteen  hours  a  day,  but  he  acquires  nothing  by  his 
labor.  In  South  Carolina,  a  slave  is  not  permitted  to  keep  a 
boat,  or  to  raise  and  breed  for  his  own  benefit,  any  horses,  cattle, 
sheep,  or  hogs,  under  pain  of  forfeiture,  and  any  person  may  take 
such  articles  from  him. 

In  Georgia,  the  master  is  fined  thirty  dollars  for  suffering  his 
slave  to  hire  himself  to  another  for  his  own  benefit.  In  Mary 
land,  the  master  forfeits  thirteen  dollars  for  each  month  that  his 
slave  is  permitted  to  receive  wages  on  his  own  account. 

In  Virginia,  every  master  is  finable  who  permits  a  slave  to 
work  for  himself  at  wages.  In  North  Carolina,  "  all  horses^ 
cattle,  hogs,  or  sheep,  that  shall  belong  to  any  slave,  or  be  of 
any  slave's  mark  in  this  State,  shall  be  seized  and  sold  by  the 
county  wardens." 

In  Mississippi,  the  master  is  forbidden,  under  the  penalty  of 
fifty  dollars,  to  let  a  slave  raise  cotton  for  himself,  "  or  to  keep 
stock  of  any  description." 

Such  is  the  anxiety  of  the  slave  laws  to  repress  every  benev 
olent  desire  of  the  master  to  promote  in  the  slightest  degree  the 
independence  of  the  slave. 

Slaves,  being  property,  are  like  cattle  liable  to  be  leased  and 
mortgaged  by  their  owners,  or  sold  on  execution  for  debt. 
12 


130  JAY'S  WORKS. 

A  slave  having  no  rights,  cannot  appear  in  a  court  of  justice 
to  ask  for  redress  of  injuries.  So  far  as  he  is  the  subject  of 
injury,  the  law  regards  him  only  as  a  brute,  and  redress  can  only 
be  demanded  and  received  by  the  owner.  The  slave  may  be 
beaten,  (robbed  he  cannot  be,)  his  wife  and  children  may  be 
insulted  and  abused  in  his  presence,  and  he  can  no  more  institute 
an  action  for  damages,  than  his  master's  horse.  But  cannot  he 
be  protected  by  his  master's  right  of  action  ?  No :  The  master 
must  prove  special  injury  to  his  property,  to  recover  damages. 
Any  man  may  with  perfect  impunity  whip  another's  slave,  unless 
he  so  injure  him  as  to  occasion  "  a  loss  of  service,  or  at  least  a 
diminution  of  the  faculty  of  the  slave  for  bodily  labor."  Such 
is  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Maryland.  In  Louisi 
ana,  if  a  third  person  maim  a  slave,  so  that  he  is  "  forever  ren 
dered  unable  to  work,"  the  offender  pays  to  the  owner  the  value 
of  the  slave,  and  is  also  to  be  at  the  expense  of  his  maintenance ; 
but  the  unfortunate  slave,  mutilated  or  crippled  for  life,  receives 
not  the  slightest  compensation.  The  master's  right  of  action  is 
a  protection  to  his  property,  not  of  the  comfort  or  security  of  the 
slave  ;  indeed,  it  tends  to  degrade  the  latter  to  the  level  of  the 
other  live  stock  on  his  master's  farm. 

A  necessary  consequence  of  slavery,  is  the  absence  of  the 
marriage  relation.  No  slave  can  commit  bigamy,  because  the 
law  knows  no  more  of  the  marriage  of  slaves,  than  it  does  of 
the  marriage  of  brutes.  A  slave  may,  indeed,  be  formally  mar 
ried,  but  so  far  as  legal  rights  and  obligations  are  concerned,  it 
is  an  idle  ceremony.  His  wife  may,  at  any  moment,  be  legally 
taken  from  him,  and  sold  in  the  market.  The  slave  laws  utterly 
nullify  the  injunction  of  the  Supreme  Lawgiver,  "  What  God 
hath  joined,  let  not  man  put  asunder." 

Of  course,  these  laws  do  not  recognize  the  parental  relation 
as  belonging  to  slaves.  A  slave  has  no  more  legal  authority 
over  his  child,  than  a  cow  over  her  calf. 

The  Legislature  of  the  slave  States,  when  legislating  respect 
ing  slaves,  seem  regardless  alike  of  the  claims  and  the  affections 
of  our  common  nature.  No  right  is  more  sacred,  or  more  uni 
versally  admitted,  than  that  of  self-preservation  ;  but  the 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  131 

wretched  slave,  whether  male  or  female,  is  denied  the  right  of 
self-defence  against  the  brutality  of  any  person  whomsoever 
having  a  white  skin.  Thus  the  law  of  Georgia  declares,  "  if 
any  slave  shall  presume  to  strike  any  white  person,  upon  trial  or 
conviction  before  the  justice  or  justices,  according  to  the  direc 
tions  of  this  act,  he  shall,  for  the  first  offence,  suffer  such  punish 
ment  as  the  said  justice  or  justices  shall  in  their  discretion  think 
fit,  not  extending  to  life  or  limb ;  and  for  the  second  offence,  suf 
fer  DEATH." 

The  same  law  prevails  in  South  Carolina,  except  that  death 
is  the  penalty  for  the  third  offence. 

In  Maryland,  the  justice  may  order  the  offender's  ears  to  be 
cropped.  In  Kentucky,  "  any  negro,  mulatto,  or  Indian,  bond 
QY free"  who  "shall  at  any  time  lift  his  hand  in  opposition  to 
any  white  person,  shall  receive  thirty  lashes  on  his  or  her  bare 
back,  well  laid  on,  by  order  of  the  justice." 

In  South  Carolina,  "  if  any  slave,  who  shall  be  out  of  the 
house  or  plantation  where  such  slaves  shall  live  or  shall  be  usu 
ally  employed,  or  without  some  white  person  in  company  with 
such  slaves,  shall  refuse  to  submit  to  undergo  the  examination  of 
any  white  person,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  any  white  person  to  pur 
sue,  apprehend,  and  moderately  correct  such  slave  ;  and  if  such 
slave  shall  assault  and  strike  such  white  person,  such  slave  may 

be  LAWFULLY  KILLED." 

We  have  seen  that  the  slave  laws  regard  the  slave,  so  far  as 
human  rights  and  enjoyments  and  social  relations  are  concerned, 
as  a  mere  brute  ;  we  are  now  to  see,  that  so  far  as  he  can  be 
made  to  suffer  for  his  acts,  he  is  regarded  as  an  intelligent  and 
responsible  being. 

Divine  equity  has  established  the  rule,  that  the  servant  which 
knew  not  his  master's  will,  and  did  commit  things  worthy  of 
stripes,  shall  be  beaten  with  few  stripes.  If  there  was  ever  a 
case  to  which  this  rule  was  applicable,  it  is  to  the  unlettered, 
ignorant,  brutalized  slave,  intentionally  deprived  of  the  ability 
to  read  the  laws  of  God  or  man.  A  code  of  laws  prepared  for 
the  government  of  such  beings,  one  would  suppose  would  be 
distinguished  for  its  lenity ;  and  in  the  mildness  of  its  penalties, 


132  JAY'S  WORKS. 

would  form  a  striking  contrast  to  a  code  for  the  government  of 
the  enlightened  and  instructed  part  of  the  community,  whose 
offences  would,  of  course,  be  aggravated  by  the  opportunities 
they  had  enjoyed  of  learning  their  duty.  Alas,  the  slave  code 
punishes  acts  not  mala  in  se  with  a  rigor  which  public  opinion 
would  not  tolerate  for  a  moment,  if  exercised  towards  white 
felons,  and  it  visits  crimes  with  penalties  far  heavier,  when  com 
mitted  by  the  poor  ignorant  slave,  than  it  does  when  they  are 
perpetrated  by  the  enlightened  citizen. 

Thus  in  Georgia,  any  person  may  inflict  twenty  lashes  on  the 
bare  back  of  a  slave  found  without  license  off  the  plantation,  or 
without  the  limits  of  the  town  to  which  he  belongs.  So  also 
in  Mississippi,  Virginia,  and  Kentucky,  at  the  discretion  of  a 
justice. 

In  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  any  person  finding  more  than 
seven  slaves  together  in  the  highway  without  a  white  person, 
may  give  each  one  twenty  lashes. 

In  Kentucky,  Virginia,  and  Missouri,  a  slave,  for  keeping  a 
gun,  powder,  shot,  a  club,  or  other  weapon  whatsoever,  offensive 
or  defensive,  may  be  whipped  thirty-nine  lashes  by  order  of  a 
justice. 

In  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee,  a  slave  travelling  without 
a  pass,  or  being  found  in  another  person's  negro  quarters,  or 
kitchen,  may  be  whipped  forty  lashes,  and  every  slave,  in  whose 
company  the  visitor  is  found,  twenty  lashes. 

In  Louisiana,  a  slave,  for  being  on  horseback  without  the  writ 
ten  permission  of  his  master,  incurs  twenty-five  lashes  ;  for  keep 
ing  a  dog,  the  like  punishment. 

By  the  law  of  Maryland,  for  "  rambling,  riding,  or  going 
abroad  in  the  night,  or  riding  horses  in  the  day-time,  without 
leave,"  a  slave  may  be  whipt,  cropt,  or  branded  on  the  cheek 
with  the  letter  R,  or  otherwise  punished,  not  extending  to  life, 
or  "  so  as  to  render  him  unfit  for  labor." 

Such  are  a  feiv  specimens  only  of  the  punishments  inflicted 
on  slaves,  for  acts  not  criminal,  and  which  it  is  utterly  impossible 
they  should  generally  know  are  forbidden  by  law. 

Let  us  now  view  the  laws  of  the  slave  States  in  relation  to 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  133 

crimes,  and  we  shall  find  that  their  severity  towards  blacks  and 
whites,  is  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  moral  guilt  of  the  offenders. 

In  Virginia,  the  laws  have  recently  been  revised,  and  by  the 
revised  code,  there  are  seventy-one  offences  for  which  the  pen 
alty  is  DEATH,  when  committed  by  slaves,  and  imprisonment 
when  by  whites.* 

In  Mississippi,  the  number  of  these  offences  is  thirty-eight, 
or  rather  many  of  them  are  not  punishable  at  all,  when  com 
mitted  by  whites  :  as,  for  instance,  attempting  to  burn  out-build 
ings,  to  commit  forgery,  to  steal  a  horse,  &c.,  &c. 

Imprisonment  of  a  slave  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  except 
in  Louisiana,  is  utterly  unknown  in  the  slave  States.  To  shut 
him  up  in  prison,  would  be  depriving  his  master  of  his  labor, 
and  burthening  the  public  with  his  maintenance ;  it  is,  therefore, 
more  economical  to  flog  him  for  trifles,  and  to  hang  him  for  seri 
ous  offences. 

Where  human  life  is  held  so  cheap,  and  human  suffering  so 
little  regarded,  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  dispensers  of 
slave  justice  will  submit  to  be  troubled  with  all  those  forms  and 
ceremonies  which  the  common  law  has  devised  for  the  protection 
of  innocence.  We  have  seen  that,  in  many  instances,  any  white 
person  may  instanter  discharge  the  functions  of  judge,  jury,  and 
executioner.  In  innumerable  instances,  all  these  functions  are 
united  in  a  single  justice  of  the  peace ;  and  in  South  Carolina, 
Virginia,  and  Louisiana,  LIFE  may  be  taken,  according  to  law, 
without  intervention  of  grand  or  petit  jurors.  In  other  States, 
a  trial  by  jury  is  granted  in  capital  cases ;  but  in  no  one  State, 
it  is  believed,  is  it  thought  worth  while  to  trouble  a  grand  jury 
with  presenting  a  slave.  In  most  of  the  slave  States,  the  ordi 
nary  tribunal  for  the  trial  of  slaves  charged  with  offences  not 
capital,  is  composed  of  justices  and  freeholders,  or  of  justices 
only.  A  white  man  cannot  be  convicted  of  misdemeanor,  except 
by  the  unanimous  verdict  of  twelve  of  his  peers.  In  Louisiana, 
if  the  court  is  equally  divided  as  to  the  guilt  of  a  slave,  judgment 
is  rendered  against  him. 

*  An  enumeration  of  these  offences,  together  with  references  to  the  stat 
utes  alluded  to  in  this  work,  may  be  found  in  "  Stroud's  Sketch  of  the  Slave 
Laws." 

12* 


134  JAY'S  WORKS. 

In  1832,  thirty -Jive  slaves  were  executed  at  Charleston,  in 
pursuance  of  the  sentence  of  a  court,  consisting  of  two  justices 
and  five  freeholders,  on  a  charge  of  intended  insurrection.  No 
indictments,  no  summoning  of  jurors,  no  challenges  for  cause  or 
favor,  no  seclusion  of  the  triers  from  intercourse  with  those  who 
might  bias  their  judgment,  preceded  this  unparalleled  legal  de 
struction  of  human  life. 

However  much  we  may  pride  ourselves,  as  a  nation,  on  the 
general  diffusion  of  the  blessings  of  education,  it  ought  to  be 
recollected  that  these  blessings  are  forcibly  withheld  from  two 
millions  of  our  inhabitants  ;  or  that  one-sixth  of  our  whole  pop 
ulation  are  doomed  by  law  to  the  grossest  ignorance. 

A  law  of  South  Carolina,  passed  in  1800,  authorizes  the  inflic 
tion  of  twenty  lashes  on  every  slave  found  in  an  assembly  con 
vened  for  the  purpose  of  "  mental  instruction,"  held  in  a  confinec 
or  secret  place,  although  in  the  presence  of  a  white.  Anothe 
law  imposes  a  fine  of  £100  on  any  person  who  may  teach  a 
slave  to  write.  An  act  of  Virginia,  of  1829,  declares  every  \ 
meeting  of  slaves  at  any  school,  by  day  or  night,  for  instruction 
in  reading  or  writing,  an  unlawful  assembly,  and  any  justice 
may  inflict  twenty  lashes  on  each  slave  found  in  such  school. 

In  North  Carolina,  to  teach  a  slave  to  read  or  write,  or  to  sell 
or  give  him  any  book  (Bible  not  excepted)  or  pamphlet,  is  pun 
ished  with  thirty-nine  lashes,  or  imprisonment,  if  the  offender 
be  a  free  negro,  but  if  a  white,  then  with  a  fine  of  $200.  The 
reason  for  this  law,  assigned  in  its  preamble  is,  that  "  teaching 
slaves  to  read  and  write,  tends  to  excite  dissatisfaction  in  their 
minds,  and  to  produce  insurrection  and  rebellion." 

In  Georgia,  if  a  white  teach  a  free  negro  or  slave  to  read  or 
write,  he  is  fined  $500,  and  imprisoned  at  the  discretion  of  the  j 
court ;  if  the  offender  be  a  colored  man,  bond  or  free,  he  is  to  be 
fined  or  whipped  at  the  discretion  of  the  court.     Of  course  a  I 
father  may  be  flogged  for  teaching  his  own  child.     This  barbar 
ous  law  was  enacted  in  1829. 

In  Louisiana,  the  penalty  for  teaching  slaves  to  read  or  write,] 
is  one  year's  imprisonment. 

These  are  specimens  of  the  efforts  made  by  slave  legislatures, 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  135 

to  enslave  the  minds  of  their  victims ;  and  we  have  surely  no 
reason  to  hope  that  their  souls  are  regarded  with  more  com 
passion. 

In  vain  has  the  Redeemer  of  the  world  given  the  command 
to  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature ;  his  professed  disciples 
in  the  slave  States  have  issued  a  counter  order ;  and  as  we  have 
already  seen,  have  by  their  laws,  incapacitated  2,000,000  of  their 
fellow-men  from  complying  with  the  injunction,  "search  the 
Scriptures."  Not  only  are  the  slaves  debarred  from  reading 
the  wonderful  things  of  God  —  they  are  practically  prevented, 
with  a  few  exceptions,  from  even  hearing  of  them. 

In  Georgia,  any  justice  of  the  peace  may,  at  his  discretion, 
break  up  any  religious  assembly  of  slaves,  and  may  order  each 
slave  present  to  be  "  corrected  without  trial,  by  receiving  on  the 
bare  back  twenty-five  stripes  with  a  whip,  switch  or  cow-skin." 

In  South  Carolina,  slaves  may  not  meet  together  for  the  pur 
pose  of  "  religious  worship  "  before  sunrise  or  after  sunset,  unless 
the  majority  of  the  meeting  be  composed  of  white  persons,  under 
the  penalty  of  twenty  lashes  well  laid  on.  As  it  will  be  rather 
difficult  for  the  slave  to  divine  before  he  goes  to  the  meeting, 
how  many  blacks  and  how  many  whites  will  be  present,  and  of 
course  which  color  will  have  the  "  majority,"  a  due  regard  for 
his  back  will  keep  him  from  the  meeting. 

In  Virginia,  all  evening  meetings  of  slaves  at  any  meeting 
house  are  unequivocally  forbidden. 

In  Mississippi,  the  law  permits  the  master  to  suffer  his  slave 
to  attend  the  preaching  of  a  white  minister. 

It  is  very  evident  that  when  public  opinion  tolerates  such 
laws,  it  will  not  tolerate  the  general  religious  instruction  of  the 
slaves.  True  it  is,  a  master  may  carry  or  send  his  slaves  to  the 
parish  church,  and  true  it  is  that  some  do  attend,  and  receive 
benefit  from  their  attendance. 

On  this,  as  well  as  on  every  other  subject  relating  to  slavery, 
we  would  rather  fall  short  of,  than  exceed  the  truth.  We  will 
not  assert  there  are  no  Christians  among  the  slaves,  for  we  trust 
there  are  some.  When,  however,  we  recollect,  that  they  are 
denied  the  Scriptures,  and  all  the  usual  advantages  of  the  Sun- 


136  JAY'S  WORKS. 

day  school,  and  are  forbidden  to  unite  among  themselves  in  acts 
of  social  worship  and  instruction,  and  that  almost  all  the  ser 
mons  they  hear  are  such  as  are  addressed  to  educated  whites, 
and  of  course  above  their  own  comprehension,  we  may  form 
some  idea  of  the  obstacles  opposed  to  their  spiritual  improvement. 
Let  it  be  also  recollected  that  every  master  possesses  the  tre 
mendous  power  of  keeping  his  slaves  in  utter 'ignorance  of  their 
Maker's  will,  and  of  their  own  immortal  destinies.  And  now 
with  all  these  facts  and  their  consequences  and  tendencies  in 
remembrance,  we  ask  if  we  do  not  make  a  most  abundant  and 
charitable  allowance  when  we  suppose  that  245,000  slaves  pos 
sess  a  saving  knowledge  of  the  religion  of  Christ  ?  And  yet 
after  this  admission,  one  which  probably  no  candid  person  will 
think  too  limited,  there  will  remain  in  the  bosom  of  our  country, 
TWO  MILLIONS  of  human  beings,  who,  in  consequence  of  our 
laws,  are  in  a  state  of  heathenism !  But  probably  many  will 
refuse  their  assent  to  this  conclusion  without  further  and  more 
satisfactory  evidence  of  its  correctness.  To  such  persons  we 
submit  the  following  testimony,  furnished  by  slave-holders  them 
selves.  In  1831,  the  Rev.  Charles  C.  Jones  preached  a  sermon 
before  two  associations  of  planters  in  Georgia,  one  of  Liberty 
County,  and  the  other  of  Mclntosh  County.  This  sermon  is 
before  us,  and  we  quote  from  it. 

"  Generally  speaking,  they  (the  slaves)  appear  to  us  to  be  without 
God  and  without  hope  in  the  world,  a  NATION  OF  HEATHEN  in  our 
very  midst.  We  cannot  cry  out  against  the  Papists  for  •withholding  the 
Scriptures  from  the  common  people,  and  keeping  them  in  ignorance  of 
the  way  of  life  ;  for  we  withhold  the  Bible  from  our  servants,  and  keep 
them  in  ignorance  of  it,  while  we  will  not  use  the  means  to  have  it 
read  and  explained  to  them.  The  cry  of  our  perishing  servants  comes 
up  to  us  from  the  sultry  plains  as  they  bend  at  their  toil  —  it  comes  up 
to  us  from  their  humble  cottages  when  they  return  at  evening  to  rest 
their  weary  limbs  —  it  comes  up  to  us  from  the  midst  of  their  ignorance 
and  superstition,  and  adultery  and  lewdness.  We  have  manifested  no 
emotions  of  horror  at  abandoning  the  souls  of  our  servants  to  the  ad 
versary,  the  roaring  lion  that  walketh  about  seeking  whom  he  may 
devour." 

On  the  5th  of  December,  1833,  a  committee  of  the  Synod  of 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  to  whom  was  referred  the  subject 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  137 

of  the  religious  instruction  of  the  colored  population,  made  a 
report  which  has  been  published,  and  in  which  this  language  is 
used  : 

"  Who  would  credit  it,  that  in  these  years  of  revival  and  benevolent 
effort,  in  this  Christian  republic,  there  are  over  TWO  MILLIONS  of 
human  beings  in  the  condition  of  HEATHEN,  and  in  some  respects  in 
a  worse  condition  ?  From  lon£r-continued  and  close  observation,  we 
believe  that  their  moral  and  religious  condition  is  such  that  they  may 
justly  be  considered  the  HEATHEN  of  this  Christian  country,  and  will 
bear  comparison  with  heathen  in  any  country  in  the  world.  The 
negroes  are  destitute  of  the  Gospel,  and  ever  will  be  under  the  present 
state  of  things.  In  the  vast  field  extending  from  an  entire  State  beyond 
the  Potomac  to  the  Sabinc  river,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Ohio, 
there  are  to  the  best  of  our  knowledge  not  twelve  men  exclusively 
devoted  to  the  religious  instruction  of  the  negroes.  In  the  present 
state  of  feeling  in  the  South,  a  ministry  of  their  own  color  could  neither 
be  obtained  NOR  TOLERATED. 

"  But  do  not  the  negroes  have  access  to  the  Gospel  through  the 
stated  ministry  of  the  whites  ?  We  answer,  Ko  ;  the  negroes  have  no 
regular  and  efficient  ministry;  as  a  matter  of  course,  no  churches; 
neither  is  there  sufficient  room  in  white  churches  for  their  accommoda 
tion.  We  know  of  but  Jive  churches  in  the  slave-holding  States  built 
expressly  for  their  use ;  these  are  all  in  the  State  of  Georgia.  We  may 
now  inquire  if  they  enjoy  the  privileges  of  the  Gospel  in  their  own 
houses,  and  on  our  plantations.  Again  we  return  a  negative  answer. 
They  have  no  Bibles  to  read  by  their  own  firesides  • —  they  have  no 
family  altars ;  and  when  in  affliction,  sickness,  or  death,  they  have  no 
minister  to  address  to  them  the  consolations  of  the  Gospel,  nor  to  bury 
them  with  solemn  and  appropriate  services." 

In  a  late  number  of  the  Charleston  (S.  C.)  Observer,  a  cor 
respondent  remarked : 

"  Let  us  establish  missionaries  among  our  own  negroes,  who  in  view 
of  religious  knowledge,  are  as  debasingly  ignorant  as  any  one  on  the 
coast  of  Africa  ;  for  I  hazard  the  assertion,  that  throughout  the  bounds 
of  our  synod,  there  are  at  least  one  hundred  thousand  slaves,  speaking 
the  same  language  as  ourselves,  who  never  heard  of  the  plan  of  salva 
tion  by  a  Redeemer." 

The  editor,  instead  of  contradicting  this  broad  assertion,  adds  : 
"  We  fully  concur  with  Avhat  our  correspondent  has  said  respect 
ing  the  benighted  heathen  among  ourselves." 

Such  is  American  slavery,  —  a  system  which  classes  with  the 
beasts  of  the  field,  over  whom  dominion  has  been  given  to  man, 
an  intelligent  and  accountable  being,  the  instant  his  Creator  has 


138  JAY'S  WORKS. 

breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life.  Over  this  infant 
heir  of  immortality,  no  mother  has  a  right  to  watch,  no  father 
may  guide  his  feeble  steps,  check  his  wayward  appetites  and 
train  him  for  future  usefulness,  happiness  and  glory.  Torn  from 
his  parents,  and  sold  in  the  market,  he  soon  finds  himself  laboring 
among  strangers  under  the  whip  of  a  driver,  and  his  task  aug 
menting  with  his  ripening  strength.  Day  after  day  and  year 
afer  year  is  he  driven  to  the  cotton  or  sugar-field,  as  the  ox  to 
the  furrow.  No  hope  of  reward  lightens  his  toil ;  the  subject  of 
insult,  the  victim  of  brutality,  the  laws  of  his  country  afford  him 
no  redress ;  his  wife,  such  only  in  name,  may  at  any  moment  be 
dragged  from  his  side ;  his  children,  heirs  only  of  his  misery 
and  degradation,  are  but  articles  of  merchandise ;  his  mind,  stupi- 
fied  by  his  oppressors,  is  wrapped  in  darkness ;  his  soul,  no  man 
careth  for  it ;  his  body,  worn  with  stripes  and  toil,  is  at  length 
committed  to  the  earth,  like  the  brute  that  perisheth. 

This  is  the  system  which  the  American  Anti- Slavery  Society 
declares  to  be  sinful,  and  ought  therefore  to  be  immediatly 
abolished ;  and  this  is  the  system  which  the  American  Coloni 
zation  Society  excuses,  and  which,  it  contends,  ought  to  be  per 
petual,  rather  than  its  victims  should  enjoy  their  rights  in  "  the 
white  man's  land." 

To  one  whose  moral  sense  has  not  been  perverted,  it  would 
seem  a  temerity  bordering  on  blasphemy,  to  contend  that  such  a 
system  can  be  approved  by  a  just  and  holy  God,  or  sanctioned 
by  the  precepts  of  his  blessed  Gospel.  Slavery,  we  are  told,  is 
not  forbidden  in  the  Bible ;  but  who  will  dare  to  say  that  cruelty 
and  injustice  and  compulsory  heathenism  are  not? 

We  are  often  reminded,  that  St.  Paul  exhorts  slaves  to  be 
obedient  to  their  masters ;  but  so  he  does  subjects  to  their  rulers. 
If,  in  the  one  instance,  he  justified  slavery,  so  did  he  despotism 
in  the  other.  The  founder  of  Christianity  and  his  apostles, 
interfered  not  with  political  institutions,  but  laid  down  rules  for 
the  conduct  of  individuals ;  and  St.  Paul,  in  requiring  masters  to 
give  their  servants  that  which  is  just  and  eqtial,  virtually  con 
demned  the  whole  system  of  slavery,  since  he  who  receives 
what  is  just  and  equal  cannot  be  a  slave.  If  it  was  right  in  the 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  139 

time  of  St.  Paul  to  hold  white  men  as  slaves,  would  it  be  wrong 
to  do  so  now  ?  If  slavery  is  lawful  now,  it  must  have  been 
lawful  in  its  commencement,  since  perseverance  in  wrong  can 
never  constitute  right.  Let  it  be  explained  how  free  men  with 
their  posterity,  to  the  latest  generation,  can  now  be  lawfully 
reduced  to  slavery,  and  forever  kept  in  ignorance  of  the  duties 
and  consolations  of  Christianity,  and  we  will  unite  with  those 
who  justify  American  slavery. 


CHAPTER    II 

PROPOSED    OBJECTS    AND    MEASURES  OF    THE  AMERICAN  ANTI- 
SLAVERY    SOCIETY CENSURE    OF   ABOLITIONISTS. 

THE  next  great  principle  maintained  by  the  Society  is,  that 
slavery  being  sinful,  it  ought  immediately  to  cease.  Admitting 
the  premises,  the  conclusion  seems  irresistible.  Sin  is  opposi 
tion  to  the  will  of  our  Creator  and  Supreme  Lawgiver.  His 
wisdom  and  goodness  are  alike  infinite,  and  if  slavery  be  incon 
sistent  with  his  will,  it  must  necessarily  be  inconsistent  with  the 
welfare  of  his  creatures.  Reason  and  revelation,  moreover, 
assure  us  that  God  will  punish  sin ;  and  therefore  to  contend 
that  it  is  necessary  or  expedient  to  continue  in  sin,  is  to  impeach 
every  attribute  of  the  Deity,  and  to  brave  the  vengeance  of 
Omnipotence. 

These  principles  lead  the  Society  to  aim  at  effecting  the  fol 
lowing  objects,  viz. : 

1st.  The  immediate  abolition  of  slavery  throughout  the  United 
States. 

2d.  As  a  necessary  consequence,  the  suppression  of  the  Amer- 
can  slave-trade. 

3d.  The  ultimate  elevation  of  the  black  population  to  an 
equality  with  the  white,  in  civil  and  religious  privileges. 


140  JAY'S  WORKS. 

But  principles  may  be  sound,  and  objects  may  be  good,  and 
yet  the  measures  adopted  to  enforce  those  principles,  and  to 
attain  those  objects,  may  be  unlawful.  Let  us  then  inquire  what 
are  the  measures  contemplated  by  the  Society. 

Slavery  exists  under  the  authority  of  the  State  Legislatures, 
in  the  several  States  ;  and  under  the  authority  of  Congress  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  and  in  the  United  States'  Territories. 

The  members  of  the  Society  are  all  represented  in  Congress, 
and  the  Constitution  guarantees  to  them  the  right  of  petition. 
They  will  therefore  petition  Congress  to  exercise  the  power  it 
possesses,  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  and  the 
Territories.  But  the  Society  is  not  represented  in  the  State 
Legislatures, .  and  therefore  petitions  to  them  might  be  deemed 
officious,  and  would  not  probably  lead  to  any  advantageous  result. 
The  Society  will  therefore  use  the  right  possessed  by  every 
member  of  the  community,  the  right  of  speech  and  of  the  press. 
They  will  address  arguments  to  the  understandings  and  the 
consciences  of  their  fellow-citizens,  and  endeavor  to  convince 
them  of  the  duty  and  policy  of  immediate  emancipation.  Legis 
latures  are  with  us  but  the  mere  creatures  of  the  people,  and 
when  the  people  of  the  slave  States  demand  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  their  Legislatures  will  give  effect  to  their  will  by  passing 
the  necessary  laws. 

The  means  by  which  the  Society  will  endeavor  to  secure  to 
the  blacks  an  equality  of  civil  and  religious  privileges,  are 
frankly  avowed  to  be  the  encouragement  of  their  intellectual, 
moral,  and  religious  improvement,  and  the  removal  of  existing 
prejudices  against  them.  To  prevent  any  misapprehensions 
of  the  real  design  of  the  Society,  the  constitution  expressly 
declares  that  the  Society  will  never  "  in  any  way  countenance 
the  oppressed  in  vindicating  their  rights  by  resorting  to  physical 
force." 

Such  are  the  principles  and  designs  of  those  who  are  now 
designated  as  abolitionists ;  and  never  since  the  settlement  of  the 
country,  has  any  body  of  citizens  been  subjected  in  a  equal 
degree,  to  unmerited  and  unmeasured  reproach. 

We  have  seen  with  what  kind  of  temper  colonizationists  speak 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  141 

of  free  negroes,  and  we  may  well  question,  when  we  call  to  mind 
the  obloquy  they  have  heaped  upon  abolitionists,  whether  the 
latter  are  not  in  their  opinion  the  greater  nuisances.  Much  as 
the  free  negroes  have  suffered  from  the  charges  of  the  Society, 
still  there  have  been  limits  to  the  invectives  hurled  against  them. 
No  chancellor  has  adjudged  them  to  be  "  reckless  incendiaries."* 
No  counsellor,  learned  in  the  law,  has  charged  them  with  being 
guilty  of  "a  palpable  nullification  of  that  Constitution  which 
they  had  sworn  to  support."  f  No  honorable  senator  has 
denounced  them  as  "fanatics,  increasing  injury  and  sealing 
oppression."  \  The  chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  New  York  Colonization  Society  never  asserted  that  their 
DESIGN  was  "  beyond  a  doubt  to  foment  a  servile  war  in  the 
South."  §  Nor  did  even  the  New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer 
ever  propose  that  the  city  authorities  should  inform  them,  that 
they  must  prosecute  "  their  treasonable  and  BEASTLY  plans  at 
their  own  peril ;  "  in  other  words,  that  they  should  not  be  pro 
tected  from  mobs.  ||  Nor,  finally,  has  any  city  corporation 
accused  them  of  holding  sentiments  "  demoralizing  in  themselves, 
and  little  short  of  treason  towards  the  government  of  our  coun 
try."  f 

But  abolitionists  are  neither  astonished  nor  dismayed  at  the 
torrent  of  insult  and  calumny  that  has  been  poured  upon  them, 
as  though  some  strange  thing  had  happened  unto  them.  They 
remember  that  Wilberforce  and  his  companions  experienced 
similar  treatment,  while  laboring  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave- 

*  Speech  of  Chancellor  Wai  worth  of  New  York. 

f  Speech  of  D.  B.  Ogden,  Esq.,  of  New  York. 

J  Hon.  Mr.  Frelinghuysen,  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

§  Commercial  Advertiser,  9th  June,  1834. 

||  Courier  and  Enquirer,  llth  July,  1834.  The  same  paper  of  the  27th  Dec., 
1834,  c'ontains  the  following  :  — "}Ye  4°  say»  an^  say  ^n  a^  f^e  earnestness  of 
conviction,  that  no  meeting  of  abolitionists  should  ever  be  suffered  to  go  on  with 
its  proceedings  in  the  United  States.  Whenever  these  wretched  disturbers  of 
the  public  peace,  and  plotters  of  MURDER,  RAPINE,  AND  A  DISSOLUTION  OF 
THE  UNION,  have  the  impudence  to  hold  a  meeting,  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
rational  citizens,  —  always  a  vast  majority  in  every  place, — to  go  to  that 
meeting,  and  there,  by  exercising  the  right  of  every  American  citizen,  make 
the  expression  of  their  disapprobation  and  disgust  loud  enough,  and  emphatic 
enough,  tq  render  it  impossible  for  treason  to  go  on  with  its 'machinations. 
Let  sedition  be  driven  from  its  den,  as  often  as  its  minions  congregate." 

U  Resolutions  of  the  Corporation  of  the  City  of  Utica. 
13 


142  JAY'S  WORKS. 

trade ;  and  they  remember  also  the  glorious  triumphs  they 
achieved,  and  the  full  though  tardy  justice  that  has  been  done  to 
their  motives.  A  few  brief  reminiscences  may  be  both  interest 
ing  and  useful. 

In  1776,  the  British  House  of  Commons  rejected  a  resolu 
tion,  that  the  slave-trade  "  was  contrary  to  the  laws  of  God  and 
the  rights  of  man."  Yet  that  trade  is  now  piracy  by  act  of 
Parliament. 

In  1788,  on  a  bill  being  introduced  into  the  House  of  Lords, 
to  mitigate  the  horrors  of  the  trade,  Lord  Chancellor  Thurlow 
ridiculed  "the  sudden  fit  of  philanthropy  that  had  given  it 
birth,"  and  Lord  Chandos  predicted  "  the  insurrection  of  the 
slaves,  and  the  massacre  of  their  masters,  from  the  agitation  of 
the  subject." 

In  1789,  on  a  motion  of  Mr.  Wilberforce,  that  the  House 
would  take  the  trade  into  consideration,  a  member  pronounced  the 
attempt  to  abolish  it  "  hypocritical,  fanatic,  and  methodistical," 
and  contended  that  abolition  must  lead  to  "  insurrections,  mas 
sacre  and  ruin." 

In  1791,  Col.  Tarleton,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  speaking 
of  the  proposed  abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  declared  that  "  the 
measure  was  fit  only  for  the  bigotry  and  superstition  of  the 
twelfth  century."  Lord  John  Russell  asserted  that  abolition 
was  "  visionary  and  delusive,  a  feeble  attempt,  without  the  power 
to  serve  the  cause  of  humanity." 

Lord  Sheffield  could  "trace  in  the  arguments  for  abolition 
nothing  like  reason,  but  on  the  contrary,  downright  frenzy." 

In  1792,  the  abolitionists  were  denounced  in  Parliament,  as 
"  a  junto  of  sectaries,  sophists,  enthusiasts,  and  fanatics." 

In  1793,  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  now  "William  IV,  in  his  place 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  declared  the  abolitionists  to  be  "  fanatics 
and  hypocrites,"  and  so  far  violated  parliamentary  decorum,  as 
to  apply  these  epithets  to  Mr.  Wilberforce  by  name.  Yet  has 
he  lived  to  crown  the  labors  and  fulfil  the  hopes  of  Wilberforce, 
by  giving  his  assent  to  the  bill  abolishing  slavery  throughout  the 
British  dominions. 

In  1804,  Lord  Temple  declared  in  Parliament,  that  to  abolish 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  143 

the  slave-trade,  would  be  "  the  death-warrant  of  every  white 
inhabitant  in  the  islands" 

Ten  times  did  Mr.  Wilberforce  bring  the  subject  of  the  aboli 
tion  of  the  traffic  before  Parliament,  and  ten  times  was  ke 
doomed  to  witness  the  failure  of  his  efforts  ;  nor  was  this  detes 
table  commerce  suppressed  till  thirty  years  after  the  first  motion 
against  it  had  been  made  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Now,  it 
is  prohibited  by  the  whole  Christian  world. 

When  the  abolitionists  of  the  present  day  think  of  these  facts, 
and  recollect  the  reproaches  heaped  on  Wilberforce  and  his  col 
leagues  by  a  chancellor  and  dignified  senators,  well  may  they 
thank  God  and  take  courage.  And  who  are  these  men,  we 
would  ask,  whom  colonizationists  are  honoring  with  epithets 
similar  to  those  which  the  advocates  of  the  slave-trade  so  liber 
ally  applied  to  the  philanthropists  who  opposed  it  ?  We  will 
suffer  an  authority  justly  respected  by  the  religious  community 
to  answer  the  question. 

Abbott's  Religious  Magazine,  in  an  article  on  the  mobs  against 
the  New  York  Abolitionists,  says  : 

"  The  men  against  whom  their  fury  was  directed,  were  in  general 
ministers  of  the  Gospel,  and  other  distinguished  members  of  Christian 
churches.  The  more  prominent  ones,  were  the  very  persons  who  have 
been  most  honored  in  times  past,  on  account  of  their  personal  exer 
tions  and  pecuniary  contributions  for  every  benevolent  purpose.  Let 
the  whole  land  be  searched,  and  we  believe  that  no  men  will  be  found 
to  have  done  so  much  for  the  promotion  of  temperance,  purity,  and 
every  benevolent  and  religious  object." 


«r 


'  M  V  i.   .  s  IT 


I.., 


144  JAY'S  WORKS. 

CHAPTER    III. 

FANATICISM    OF   ABOLITIONISTS. 

ONE  of  the  most  usual  terms  by  which  abolitionists  are  desig 
nated  by  their  opponents  is,  "  the  fanatics."  It  seems  they  are 
fanatics,  because  they  believe  slavery  to  be  sinful.  The  grounds 
for  this  belief  have  been  already  stated.  But  is  the  sinfulness 
of  slavery  a  new  doctrine  ?  or  has  it  been  held  only  by  weak 
and  misguided  men?  Is  Wilberforce  to  be  denounced  as  a 
"  wretched  fanatic,"  because  he  declared,  "  slavery  is  the  full 
measure  of  pure  unsophisticated  wickedness,  and  scorning  all 
competition  or  comparison,  it  stands  alone  without  a  rival,  in  the 
secure,  undisputed  possession  of  its  detestable  preeminence  ?  " 

Was  Jonathan  Edwards  a  poor  "  misguided  "  man,  for  thus 
addressing  slave-holders  ?  "  While  you  hold  your  negroes  in 
slavery,  you  do  wrong,  exceedingly  wrong  —  you  do  not  as  you 
would  that  men  should  do  to  you  ;  you  commit  sin  in  the  sight 
of  God ;  you  daily  violate  the  plain  rights  of  mankind,  and  that 
in  a  higher  degree  than  if  you  committed  theft  or  robbery." 
Were  Porteus,  Horseley,  Fox,  Johnson,  Burke,  Jefferson,  and 
Bolivar,  "  miserable  enthusiasts  ?  "  Yet  hear  their  testimonies. 

"  The  Christian  religion  is  opposed  to  slavery  in  its  spirit  and  in  its 
principles;  it  classes  men-stealers  among  murderers  of  fathers  and  of 
mothers,  and  the  most  profane  criminals  upon  earth."  Porteus. 

"  Slavery  is  injustice  which  no  consideration  of  policy  can  extenu 
ate."  Horseley. 

"  Personal  freedom  is  the  right  of  every  human  being.  It  is  a  right 
of  which  he  who  deprives  a  fellow  creature,  was  absolutely  criminal  in 
so  depriving  him  ;  and  which  he  who  withheld,  was  no  less  criminal  in 
withholding."  Fox. 

"  No  man  is  by  nature  the  property  of  another.  The  rights  of 
nature  must  be  some  way  forfeited,  before  they  can  be  justly  taken 
away."  Johnson. 

"  Slavery  is  a  state  so  improper,  so  degrading,  and  so  ruinous  to  the 
feelings  and  capacities  of  human  nature,  that  it  ought  not  to  be  suffered 
to  exist."  Burke. 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  145 

"  The  Almighty  has  no  attribute  which  can  take  sides  with  us  in 
such  a  contest,"  —  (a  contest  with  insurgent  slaves.)  Jefferson. 

"  Slavery  is  the  infringement  of  all  laws ;  a  law  having  a  tendency 
to  preserve  slavery,  would  be  the  grossest  sacrilege."  Bolivar. 

We  Avould  take  the  liberty  of  recommending  to  the  consider 
ation  of  certain  Methodist  colonizationists,  the  following  language 
of  John  "Wesley. 

"  Men-buyers  are  exactly  on  a  level  with  men-stealers.  Indeed,  you 
say,  I  pay  honestly  for  my  goods,  and  am  not  concerned  to  know  IIOAV 
they  are  come  by.  Nay,  but  you  are  —  you  are  deeply  concerned  to 
know  that  they  are  honestly  come  by.  Otherwise,  you  are  a  partaker 
with  a  thief,  and  are  not  a  jot  honester  than  him.  But  you  know  they 
are  not  honestly  come  by ;  you  know  they  are  procured  by  means 
nothing  so  innocent  as  picking  of  pockets,  or  robbery  on  the  highway. 
Perhaps  you  will  say,  I  do  not  buy  my  negroes,  I  only  use  those  left 
me  by  my  father.  So  far  is  well,  but  is  it  enough  to  satisfy  your  con 
science  ?  Had  your  father,  have  you,  has  any  man  living  a  rigjlit  to 
use  another  as  a  slave  ?  It  cannot  be,  even  setting  revelation  aside." 

But  abolitionists  are  fanatics,  not  merely  because  they  believe 
slavery  sinful,  but  also  because  they  contend  it  ought  immediate 
ly  to  be  abolished.  In  their  fanaticism  on  this  point,  as  well  as 
on  the  other,  they  are  kept  in  countenance  by  a  host  of  divines 
and  statesmen,  and  by  the  unanimous  opinion  of  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  of  Christians.  Men  of  all  ranks  and  charac 
ters,  from  John  Wesley  or  Daniel  O'Connell  have  exhibited  this 
fanaticism ;  it  has  been  borne  by  the  republicans  of  France,  the 
Catholics  of  South  America,  the  people  of  England,  Scotland, 
and  Ireland. 

So  long  ago  as  1774,  John  Wesley  declared  :  "It  cannot  be 
that  either  war  or  contract  can  give  any  man  such  a  property  in 
another,  as  he  has  in  his  sheep  and  oxen.  Much  less  is  it  pos 
sible  that  any  child  of  man  should  ever  be  born  a  slave.  If, 
therefore,  you  have  any  regard  to  justice,  (to  say  nothing  of 
mercy,  nor  the  revealed  will  of  God,)  render  unto  all  their  due. 
Give  liberty  to  whom  liberty  is  due,  that  is,  to  every  child  of 
man,  to  every  partaker  of  human  nature." 

Jonathan  Edwards  was  fanatic  enough  to  assert :  —  "  Every 
man,  who  cannot  show  that  his  negro  hath,  by  his  voluntary 
conduct,  forfeited  his  liberty,  is  obligated  immediately  to  manu 
mit  him." 

13* 


146  JAY'S  WORKS. 

One  million  five  hundred  thousand  persons  petitioned  the  Brit 
ish  Parliament  for  the  total  and  immediate  abolition  of  slavery. 
Indeed,  Mr.  O'Connell  expressed  the  nearly  unanimous  sentiment 
of  the  whole  nation,  when  he  exclaimed,  —  "I  am  for  speedy, 
immediate  abolition.  I  care  not  what  creed  or  color  slavery 
may  assume,  I  am  for  its  total,  its  instant  abolition. 

We  have  not  yet  exhausted  the  proofs  of  the  alleged  fanati 
cism  of  abolitionists.  It  seems  they  are  fanatics  for  wishing  to 
elevate  the  blacks  to  a  civil  and  religious  equality  with  the 
whites.  Certain  colonization  editors  deny  to  abolitionists,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  constitutional  right  of  freedom  of  speech,  the 
press,  and  pulpit,  and  even  of  peaceably  assembling  together ; 
and  multitudes  seem  to  think,  that  they  have  forfeited  the  pro 
tection  of  the  ninth  commandment.  Men  of  all  ranks  have 
united  in  charging  upon  them  designs  which  they  indignantly 
disclaim,  and  in  support  of  which,  not  a  particle  of  evidence  has 
been  or  can  be  adduced.  One  of  the  designs  falsely  imputed  to 
them,  is  that  of  bringing  about  an  amalgamation  of  colors  by 
intermarriages.  In  vain  have  they  again  and  again  denied  any 
such  design ;  in  vain  have  their  writings  been  searched  for  any 
recommendation  of  such  amalgamation.  No  abolitionist  is 
known  to  have  married  a  negro,  or  to  have  given  his  child  to  a 
negro ;  yet  has  the  charge  of  amalgamation  been  repeated,  and 
repeated,  till  many  have,  no  doubt,  honestly  believed  it. 

During  the  very  height  of  the  New  York  riots,  and  as  if  to 
excite  the  mob  to  still  greater  atrocities,  the  editor  of  the  Com 
mercial  Advertiser  asserted  that  the  abolitionists  had  "  sought  to 
degrade  "  the  identity  of  their  fellow  citizens,  as  a  "  nation  of 
white  men,  by  reducing  it  to  the  condition  of  MONGRELS."  Com. 
Adv.  llth  July,  1834. 

No  one  in  the  possession  of  his  reasoning  faculties  can  believe 
it  to  be  the  duty  of  white  men  to  select  black  wives ;  and  aboli 
tionists  have  given  every  proof  the  nature  of  the  case  will  ad 
mit,  that  they  countenance  no  such  absurdity. 

But  most  true  it  is,  that  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  avows  its 
intention  to  labor  for  the  civil  and  religious  equality  of  the 
blacks.  It  has  been  found  expedient  to  accuse  it  of  aiming  also 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  147 

at  their  social  equality.  He  must  be  deeply  imbued  with  fanat 
icism,  or  rather  with  insanity,  who  contends,  that  because  a  man 
has  a  dark  skin,  he  is,  therefore,  entitled  to  a  reception  in  our 
families  and  a  place  at  our  tables. 

We  all  know  white  men  whose  characters  and  habits  render 
them  repulsive  to  us,  and  whom  no  consideration  would  induce 
us  to  admit  into  our  social  circles ;  and  can  it  be  believed  that 
abolitionists  are  Avilling  to  extend  to  negroes,  merely  on  account 
of  their  color,  courtesies  and  indulgences  which,  in  innumerable 
instances,  they  withhold,  and  properly  withhold,  from  their  white 
fellow  citizens  ?  But  who  pretends  that,  because  a  man  is  so 
disagreeable  in  his  manners  and  person  that  we  refuse  to  asso 
ciate  with  him,  therefore  he  ought  to  be  denied  the  right  of  suf 
frage,  the  privilege  of  choosing  his  trade  and  profession,  the 
opportunities  of  acquiring  knowledge,  and  the  liberty  of  pursuing 
his  own  happiness  ?  Yet  such  is  our  conduct  towards  the  free 
blacks,  and  it  is  this  conduct  which  the  Society  aims  at  reform 
ing.  The  Society  does  contend,  that  no  man  ought  to  be  punished 
for  the  complexion  God  has  given  him.  And  are  not  black  men 
punished  for  the  color  of  their  skin  ?  Read  the  laws  of  the  slave 
States  relative  to  free  negroes  ;  alas  !  read  the  laws  of  Ohio  and 
Connecticut ;  read  the  decision  of  Judge  Daggett ;  behold  them 
deprived  of  the  means  of  education,  and  excluded  from  almost 
every  trade  and  profession ;  see  them  compelled  to  wander  in 
poverty  and  ignorance.  Now,  all  this,  abolitionists  contend  is 
wrong,  and  their  opposition  to  this  system  of  persecution  and 
oppression  is  fanaticism  !  Be  it  so  ;  but  it  is  only  modern  fanat 
icism,  and  it  was  not  so  regarded  when  in  1785,  JOHN  JAY 
declared : 

"  I  wish  to  sec  all  unjust  and  unnecessary  discriminations  every 
where  abolished,  and  that  the  time  may  soon  come,  when  all  our  inhab 
itants,  of  every  COLOR  and  denomination,  shall  be  free  and  EQUAL 

PARTAKERS  OF  OUR  POLITICAL    LIBERTY." 

It  requires  no  great  exercise  of  candor  to  admit  that  the 
prejudices  existing  against  the  blacks  are  sinful,  whenever  they 
lead  us  to  treat  those  unhappy  people  with  injustice  and  inhu 
manity.  They  have  their  rights  as  well  as  ourselves.  They 


148  JAY'S  WORKS. 

have  no  right  to  associate  with  us  against  our  will,  but  they  have 
a  right  'to  acquire  property  by  lawful  industry ;  they  have  a 
right  to  participate  in  the  blessings  of  education  and  political 
liberty.  When,  therefore,  our  prejudices  lead  us  to  keep  the 
blacks  in  poverty,  by  restricting  their  industry,*  to  keep  them 
in  ignorance,  by  excluding  them  from  our  seminaries,  and  pre 
venting  them  from  having  seminaries  of  their  own ;  to  keep 
them  in  a  state  of  vassalage  by  denying  them  any  choice  in  their 
rulers ;  our  prejudices  are  so  far  sinful,  and  so  far  only  does  the 
Anti-Slavery  Society  aim  at  removing  them. 


CHAPTER    IV. 


INCENDIARISM   AND    TREASON    OF    ABOLITIONISTS. 

IT  is  not  enough  that  abolitionists  should  be  represented  as 
fanatics ;  it  has  been  deemed  expedient  to  hold  them  up  to  the 
community  as  incendiaries  and  traitors.  The  chairman  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  New  York  Colonization  Society, 
thus  speaks  of  the  Anti- Slavery  Society,  in  his  paper  of  the  9th 
June,  1834: 

"  The  design  of  this  Society  is,  beyond  a  doubt,  to  foment  a  servile 
war  in  tlie  South ;  they  have  been  heard  to  say,  blood  must  be  shed, 
and  the  sooner  the  better ;  this  Society  owes  its  existence  not  to  the 
love  of  liberty,  or  any  particular  affection  for  the  slaves,  but  to  cruel 
and  bitter  hatred,  and  malignity." 

In  an  earlier  paper,  he  inserted  an  article  accusing  abolition 
ists  of  seeking  to  use  the  pulpits  "  for  the  base  purpose  of  encour 
aging  scenes  of  bloodshed." 

Here  we  find  the  most  atrocious  designs  imputed  to  men  well 
known  in  the  community  for  active  benevolence  and  private 

*  As  one  instance  among  the  innumerable  restrictions  on  the  industry  of 
these  people,  we  may  mention  that  no  free  black,  however  moral  and  intelli 
gent,  can  obtain  a  license  in  the  city  of  New  York  to  drive  a  cart ! 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  149 

worth;  and  yet  not  a  scintilla  of  evidence  is  offered  in  support 
of  the  extraordinary  fact,  that  such  men  should  harbor  such 
designs.  In  this  case  the  accused  can  of  course  offer  only  nega 
tive  proof  of  their  innocence.  That  proof  is  to  be  found,  first, 
in  their  individual  characters ;  secondly,  in  the  fact  that  many 
of  the  abolitionists  are  emphatically  peace  men,  that  is,  they  hold 
the  Quaker  doctrine  of  the  unlawfulness  of  war,  and  maintain 
that  it  would  be  sinful  in  the  slaves  to  attempt  effecting  their 
freedom  by  force  of  arms  ;  *  thirdly,  in  the  fundamental  principle 
of  the  Society  that  they  will  "  never  in  any  way  countenance 
the  oppressed  in  vindicating  their  rights  by  resorting  to  physical 
force ; "  and,  fourthly,  in  the  fact  that  abolitionists  as  such,  have 
in  no  instance  recommended  or  committed  an  act  of  unlawful 
violence. 

But  by  declaiming  against  slavery,  abolitionists  are  exciting 
odium  against  slave-holders.  If  he  who  labors  to  render  any 
particular  sin,  and  those  who  are  guilty  of  it  odious,  is  of  course 
a  "  reckless  incendiary,"  few  are  more  justly  and  honorably 
entitled  to  this  epithet,  than  the  excellent  Chancellor  of  New 
York.  Few  have  shown  more  intrepidity  in  denouncing  the 
venders  of  ardent  spirits  than  this  gentleman ;  and  abolitionists 
in  their  warfare  against  slavery,  may  well  take  a  lesson  from  the 
example  he  has  set  them  of  an  honest  and  fearless  discharge  of 
duty.  Had  the  President  of  the  New  York  Temperance  Society 
and  his  associates  exercised  the  same  tenderness  and  gentleness 
towards  drunkards  and  venders,  that  he  now  shows  towards 
slave-holders,  Temperance  Societies  would  have  checked  the 
progress  of  drunkenness  as  little  as  colonization  promises  to  do 
that  of  slavery. 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON  was  not  denounced  as  a  reckless  incen 
diary,  when  in  the  midst  of  a  slave  population,  he  declared  that 
the  Almighty  had  no  attribute  that  could  take  side  with  the 
masters  in  a  contest  with  their  slaves ;  nor  did  JOHN  JAY  forfeit 
the  confidence  of  his  countrymen,  when  during  the  Revolution 
ary  war,  he  asserted,  "  till  America  comes  into  this  measure, 

*  This  sentiment  is  held  and  avowed  by  the  much  calumniated  Mr.  Gar 
rison. 


150  JAY'S  WORKS. 

(abolition  of  slavery)  her  prayers  to  heaven  for  liberty  will  be 
IMPIOUS  ; "  nor  when  addressing  the  Legislature  of  New  York, 
then  a  slave  State,  he  told  them  that  persons  "free  by  the  laws 
of  God,  are  held  in  slavery  by  the  laws  of  man." 

Nor  were  FRANKLIN  and  his  associates  regarded  as  incendi 
aries  for  uniting  in  1787,  "  to  extend  the  blessings  of  freedom 
to  every  part  of  our  race,"  or  for  refusing  to  permit  slave-holders 
to  participate  with  them  in  this  glorious  effort. 

It  was  not  sufficient  to  ridicule  abolitionists  as  fanatics,  or  to 
stigmatize  them  as  incendiaries ;  they  must  be  branded  as  trai 
tors  and  milliners.  On  the  9th  of  October,  1833,  a  few  days 
after  a  mob  had  assembled  to  deprive  American  citizens  of  one  of 
their  dearest  constitutional  rights,  that  of  peaceably  expressing 
their  opinions,  a  numerous  colonization  meeting  was  convened 
in  New  York  for  the  purpose  of  taking  advantage  of  the  recent 
excitement  to  raise  the  sum  of  $20,000.  Gentlemen  of  high 
rank  and  influence  addressed  the  meeting.  Not  a  word  of  dis 
approbation  of  the  late  outrage  escaped  them ;  on  the  contrary, 
the  violence  offered  to  the  abolitionists  seemed  to  be  extenuated, 
if  not  justified,  by  the  grievous  charges  now  brought  against 
them. 

The  Hon.  Mr.  Frelinghuysen  of  New  Jersey,  justly  distin 
guished  for  his  piety,  his  talents,  and  his  station  as  a  Senator  of 
the  United  States,  addressed  the  meeting.  "  In  the  course  of 
his  address,"  says  the  N.  Y.  Commercial  Advertiser,  10th  of 
October,  "  he  dwelt  with  emphasis,  and  just  discrimination  upon 
the  proceedings  of  both  cis  and  trans-Atlantic  abolitionists,  who 
are  seeking  to  destroy  our  happy  Union." 

Chancellor  Walworth,  one  of  the  most  estimable  citizens,  and 
the  highest  judicial  officer  of  the  State  of  New  York,  alluding  to 
the  emancipation  to  be  effected  by  colonization,  remarked  : 

"  The  emancipation,  however,  to  which  this  resolution  directs  your 
attention,  is  not  that  unconstitutional  and  dangerous  emancipation  con 
templated  by  a  few  visionary  enthusiasts,  and  a  still  fewer  reckless 
incendiaries  among  us,  which  cannot  be  effected  without  violating  the 
rights  of  property  secured  by  that  constitution  which  we  have  sworn  to 
support  —  that  emancipation  which  would  arm  one  part  of  the  Union 
against  another,  and  light  up  the  flame  of  civil  war  in  this  now  happy 
land."  N.  Y.  Journal  of  Commerce. 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  151 

David  B.  Ogden,  Esq.,  a  gentleman  whose  legal  eminence 
and  whose  purity  of  character  justly  give  to  his  opinions  peculiar 
weight,  used  the  following  language  : 

"  I  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity,  to  enter  my  solemn  protest 
against  the  attempts  which  are  making  by  a  few  FANATICS,  who,  with 
out  looking  to  the  fearful  consequences  involved  in  such  an  issue,  are 
advocating  the  immediate  emancipation  of  slaves,  in  the  Southern 
District.  As  citizens  of  the  United  States,  we  have  no  right  to  interfere 
with  the  claims  of  our  Southern  brethren  to  the  property  of  their 
slaves.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  recognizes  their  right  to 
it,  and  they  have  not  only  a  sure  and  undeniable  right  to  that  property, 
but  they  are  entitled  to  the  full  protection  of  the  constituted  authorities, 
in  enforcing  the  enjoyment  of  it.  Let  us  not  talk  any  more  of  nullifica 
tion  ;  the  doctrine  of  immediate  emancipation  is  a  direct  and  palpable 
nullification  of  that  Constitution  ive  have  sworn  to  support"  N.  Y. 
Journal  of  Commerce. 

We  might  have  selected  many  similar  charges  from  other 
sources,  but  we  have  taken  these  on  account  of  the  high  character 
of  the  accusers,  and  because  the  authors  are  all  of  the  legal  pro 
fession,  and,  of  course,  aware  of  the  importance  of  precision  in 
all  charges  of  a  criminal  nature.  Not  one  of  these  gentlemen 
sitting  as  a  criminal  judge,  would  permit  the  merest  vagabond  to 
be  put  on  his  defence  on  a  vague  charge  of  stealing,  but  would 
quash  any  indictment  that  did  not  specify  the  time  and  place 
of  the  offence,  and  the  property  alleged  to  be  stolen  ;  yet  they 
did  not  scruple  to  hold  up  their  fellow-citizens  and  fellow  Chris 
tians  to  the  indignation  of  the  public,  on  charges  destitute  of  all 
specification,  and  unsupported  by  a  particle  of  testimony. 

Abolitionists  are  here  accused  of  seeking  to  destroy  our  happy 
Union ;  of  contemplating  a  violation  of  property,  secured  by  the 
Constitution  they  had  sworn  to  support ;  of  pursuing  measures 
which  would  lead  to  a  civil  war ;  and  of  being  guilty  of  direct 
and  palpable  nullification.  When  —  where  —  how  were  these 
crimes  attempted  ?  What  proof  is  offered  ?  Nothing,  absolutely 
nothing,  is  offered  but  naked  assertion.  Is  this  equitable  ?  Is 
it  doing  to  others  as  these  gentlemen  would  wish  others  to  do  to 
them  ? 

But  it  is  not  enough  that  abolitionists  should  be  denounced  at 
home ;  they  must  also  be  defamed  abroad.  Mr.  Gurley,  Secre 
tary  of  the  American  Colonization  Society,  writes  a  letter  (1833) 


152  JAY'S  WORKS. 

to  Henry  Ibbotson,  Esq.,  England,  and  to  give  it  greater  weight, 
dates  it,  "  Office  of  the  Colonization  Society,  Washington."  In 
this  letter,  he  undertakes  to  enlighten  his  foreign  correspondent 
on  some  of  the  "fundamental  errors  "  of  the  abolitionists,  and 
ranks  among  them  the  opinion,  "  that,  in  present  circumstances, 
slavery  ought  to  be  abolished,  by  means  not  acting  solely  through, 
but,  in  a  great  degree  against,  and  in  defiance  of  the  will  of  the 
South."  Not  a  tittle  of  evidence  is  given,  that  such  an  opinion 
is  held  by  a  single  individual  in  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Jeremiah  Hubbard,  clerk  of  the  Yearly  Meeting  of 
Friends,  in  North  Carolina,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  in  England, 
(Afr.  Rep.,  X,  p.  37,)  declares  that  "  the  primary  object "  of  the 
abolitionists  "  appears  to  be,  that  of  producing  such  a  revolution 
in  public  sentiment  as  to  cause  the  national  legislation  to  bear 
directly  upon  the  slave-holders,  and  to  compel  them  to  emancipate 
their  slaves." 

Now,  to  all  these  charges,  and  to  each  and  every  one  of 
them,  the  members  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  plead  NOT 
GUILTY,  and  desire  to  be  tried  by  God  and  their  country.  But, 
alas,  no  trial  is  vouchsafed  to  them :  judgment  has  already  been 
given,  and  execution  awarded  against  them,  without  trial  and 
without  evidence,  solely  on  the  finding  of  a  voluntary  and 
irresponsible  inquest.  All  they  can  now  do,  is  to  ask  for  a 
reversal  of  the  "judgment  as  false  and  illegal,  cruel  and  op 
pressive. 

It  is,  of  course,  difficult  to  disprove  charges,  where  the  counts 
of  the  indictment  are  utterly  void  of  certainty,  and  where,  from 
the  nature  of  the  case,  none  but  negative  testimony  can  be 
offered  by  the  accused.  We  have  a  right  to  presume  that  the 
treason  and  nullification  charged  on  abolitionists,  have  reference 
to  their  efforts  to  procure  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  United 
States.  Now  slavery  exists  under  the  authority  of  Congress, 
and  also  under  the  authority  of  State  Legislatures.  We  will 
proceed  in  the  first  place  to  exhibit  some  facts  relative  to  slavery 
in  the  former  instance,  and  inquire  how  far  the  conduct  of  aboli 
tionists  in  respect  to  it  is  treasonable  and  unconstitutional ;  and 
we  will  then  make  the  same  inquiry  as  to  their  conduct  in  regard 
to  slavery  in  the  several  States. 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  153 

CHAPTER   V. 

SLAVERY   UNDER    THE     THE   AUTHORITY    OF    CONGRESS. 

AT  the  last  census,  there  were  in  the  territories  of  Arkansas, 
Florida,  and  the  District  of  Columbia,  twenty-six  thousand  one 
hundred  and  thirty-eight  slaves.  We  will  confine  our  remarks 
at  present  to  slavery  as  it  is  exhibited  at  the  seat  of  the  federal 
government,  and  in  a  portion  of  territory  over  which  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States  has  given  to f Congress  "exclusive 
jurisdiction."  In  this  District  of  ten  miles  square,  there  are  six 
thousand  slaves  ;  and  the  laws  under  which  they  are  held  in 
bondage,  are  among  the  most  cruel  and  wicked  of  all  the  slave 
laws  in  the  United  States.  This  District,  moreover,  placed  as 
it  is  under  the  immediate  and  absolute  control  of  the  national 
government,  is  the  great  slave  mart  of  the  North  American 
continent. 

In  1829,  Mr.  Miner,  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  from  Pennsylvania,  introduced  a  resolution  for  the  gradual 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District.  In  his  speech  in  support  of 
this  resolution,  many  appalling  facts  were  disclosed.  It  appeared 
that  in  the  last  five  years,  seven  hundred  and  forty-two  colored 
persons  had  been  committed  to  the  public  prison  of  the  city  of 
Washington.  And  were  these  persons  accused  or  convicted  of 
crime  ?  NOT  ONE.  Four  hundred  and  fifty-two  were  lodged 
in  the  UNITED  STATES  PRISON  by  slave-traders,  for  safe-keeping 
prior  to  exportation.  The  residue  were  imprisoned  on  suspicion, 
real  or  affected,  of  being  fugitive  slaves ;  and  if  not  claimed  as 
such,  were  by  authority  of  Congress,  to  be  SOLD  AS  SLAVES  FOR 
LIFE,  to  raise  money  to  pay  their  JAIL  FEES  ! 

Such  are  the  facts  in  regard  to  the  prison  in  the  Capi 
tal  of  our  confederate  Republic;  and  let  it  be  recollected 
that  there  are  other  prisons  besides  this  in  the  District  of 
Columbia. 

14 


154  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Of  the  practical  operation  of  a  system  sanctioned  by  the  laws 
of  Congress,  takes  the  following  sample : 

"  Visiting  the  prison,"  says  Mr.  Miner,  "  and  passing  through  the 
avenues  that  lead  to  the  cells,  I  was  struck  with  the  appearance  of  a 
woman,  having  three  or  four  children  with  her,  one  at  the  breast. 
She  presented  such  an  aspect  of  woe,  that  I  could  not  help  inquiring 
her  story.  It  was  simply  this :  she  was  a  slave,  but  had  married  a  man 
who  was  free.  By  him  she  had  eight  or  nine  children.  Moved  by 
natural  affection,  the  father  labored  to  support  the  children ;  but  as 
they  attained  an  age  to  be  valuable  in  the  MARKET,  perhaps  ten  or 
twelve,  the  master  sold  them.  One  after  another  was  taken  away  and 
sold  to  the  slave-dealers.  She  had  now  come  to  an  age  to  be  no  longer 
profitable  as  a  breeder,  and  her  master  had  separated  her  from  her 
husband  and  all  the  associations  of  life,  and  sent  her  and  her  children 
to  YOUR  prison  for  sale." 

The  law  of  the  District,  virtually  the  law  of  Congress,  by 
which  any  colored  person,  without  the  allegation  of  a  crime, 
may  be  seized  and  thrown  into  a  cell,  and  unless  he  can  there 
prove  his  freedom,  or  is  claimed  by  another,  is  sold  for  life  as  a 
slave  to  pay  his  jail  fees,  is  for  unblushing  injustice  and  atrocity 
utterly  unrivalled  by  any  enactment  of  the  despots  of  the  old 
world.  Mr.  Miner  states,  that  in  ^182  6-7  no  less  than  FIVE 
persons  were  thus  sold  into  perpetual  bondage,  for  jail  fees.  In 
one  case,  the  UNITED  STATES  MARSHAL  lost  his  fees.  Hear 
Mr.  Miner. 

"  In  August,  1821,  a  black  man  was  taken  up  and  imprisoned  as  a 
runaway.  He  was  kept  confined  until  October,  1822, — four  hundred 
and  five  days.  In  this  time,  vermin,  disease,  and  misery  had  deprived 
him  of  the  use  of  his  limbs.  He  was  rendered  a  cripple  for  life,  and 
finally  discharged,  as  no  one  would  buy  him.  Turned  out  upon  the 
world  a  miserable  pauper,  disabled  by  OUR  means  from  gaining  sub 
sistence,  he  is  sometimes  supported  from  the  Poor-house,  sometimes 
receives  alms  in  your  streets." 

Mr.  Miner  thus  speaks  of  the  AMERICAN  SLAVE-TRADE,  as 
carried  on  in  the  District : 

"  The  slave-trade,  as  it  exists  and  is  carried  on  here,  is  marked  by 
instances  of  injustice  and  cruelty  scarcely  exceeded  on  the  coast  of 
Africa.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  it  is  a  mere  purchase  and  sale  of 
acknowledged  slaves.  The  District  is  full  of  complaints  on  the  subject, 
and  the  evil  is  increasing.  So  long  ago  as  1802,  the  extent  and  cruelty 
of  the  traffic,  produced  from  a  grand  jury,  at  Alexandria,  a  present- 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  155 

mcnt  so  clear,  so  strong,  and  so  feelingly  drawn,  that  I  shall  make  no 
apology  for  reading  it  to  the  House." 

Mr.  Miner  then  read  the  following  : 

"January  Term,  1802. 

"  We  the  grand  jury  for  the  body  of  the  County  of  Alexandria,  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  present  as  a  grievance  the  practice  of  persons 
coming  from  distant  parts  of  the  United  States  into  this  District,  for 
the  purpose  of  purchasing  slaves,  where  they  exhibit  to  our  view  a 
scene  of  wretchedness  and  human  degradation,  disgraceful  to  our  char 
acters  as  citizens  of  a  free  government.  True  it  is  that  these  dealers, 
in  the  persons  of  our  fellow-men,  collect  within  this  District  from  vari 
ous  parts,  numbers  of  those  victims  of  slavery,  and  lodge  them  in  some 
place  of  confinement  until  they  have  completed  their  numbers.  They 
are  then  turned  out  in  our  streets  and  exposed  to  view,  loaded  with 
chains  as  though  they  had  committed  some  heinous  offence  against  our 
laws.  AVe  consider  it  a  grievance  that  citizens  from  distant  parts  of 
the  United  States  should  be  permitted  to  come  within  this  District,  arid 
pursue  a  traffic  fraught  with  so  much  misery  to  a  class  of  beings  enti 
tled  to  our  protection  by  the  laws  of  justice  and  humanity ;  and  that 
the  interposition  of  civil  authority  cannot  be  had  to  prevent  parents 
being  wrested  from  their  offspring,  and  children  from  their  parents, 
without  respect  to  the  ties  of  nature.  We  consider  these  grievances 
demanding  legislative  redress,"  —  that  is,  redress  by  Congress. 

As  illustrative  of  the  horrors  and  iniquities  of  the  traffic,  Mr. 
Miner  informed  the  House  of  an  incident  that  had  occurred 
during  the  previous  session  of  Congress.  A  free  colored  man 
had  married  a  slave  ;  with  the  avails  of  his  industry,  he  had,  in 
the  course  of  some  years,  purchased  the  freedom  of  his  wife 
and  children.  He  left  home  on  business,  and  on  his  return 
found  his  house  tenantless.  His  wife  and  children  were  missing. 
It  was  soon  ascertained  that  they  had  been  kidnapped  by  slave- 
dealers,  and  confined  in  a  private  slave-prison,  in  Alexandria ; 
from  whence  they  had  afterwards  been  sent  to  a  distant  market, 
and  were  forever  lost  to  the  husband  and  the  father. 

"  There  is  a  man  now  in  this  District,"  continued  Mr.  Miner,  "  who 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  slave-dealers,  about  to  be  sent  off  to  the  South, 
when  he  laid  his  hand  on  a  block,  and  with  an  axe  severed  it  from  his 
arm.  Can  the  slave-trade  on  the  coast  of  Africa  be  more  horrible, 
more  dreaded,  or  more  prolific  of  scenes  of  misery  ?  To  me  all  this 
is  dreadful,  and  I  think  it  should  not  be  tolerated  here." 

In  182&,  a  petition  for  the  suppression  of  this  trade,  and  for 
the  gradual  abolition  of  slavery,  and  signed  by  more  than  ONE 


156  JAY'S  WORKS. 

THOUSAND  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  District,  was  presented  to 
Congress.  From  this  document  we  extract  the  following  : 

"  While  the  laws  of  the  United  States  denounce  the  foreign  slave- 
trade  as  piracy,  and  punish  with  death  those  who  are  found  engaged  in 
its  perpetration,  there  exists  in  this  District,  the  seat  of  the  national 
government,  a  DOMESTIC  SLAVE-TRADE  scarcely  less  disgraceful  in 
its  character,  and  even  more  demoralizing  in  its  influence.  These 
people  are  without  their  consent  torn  from  their  homes  ;  husband  and 
wife  are  frequently  separated  and  sold  into  distant  parts  ;  children  are 
taken  from  their  parents  without  regard  to  the  ties  of  nature,  and  the 
most  endearing  bonds  of  affection  are  broken  forever. 

"  Nor  is  this  traffic  confined  to  those  who  are  legally  slaves  for  life. 
Some  who  are  entitled  to  freedom,  and  many  who  have  a  limited  time 
to  serve,  are  sold  into  unconditional  slavery,  and  owing  to  the  defec- 
tiveness  of  our  laws,  they  are  generally  carried  out  of  the  District 
before  the  necessary  steps  can  be  taken  for  their  release. 

"  We  behold  these  scenes  continually  taking  place  among  us,  and 
lament  our  inability  to  prevent  them.  The  people  of  this  District  have 
within  themselves  no  means  of  legislative  redress,  and  we  therefore 
appeal  to  your  honorable  body,  as  the  ONLY  ONE  vested  by  the 
American  Constitution  with  power  to  relieve  us." 

We  will  now  exhibit  the  flourishing  condition  of  the  slave- 
trade  under  the  PROTECTION  OF  CONGRESS  in  1834.  The  fol 
lowing  advertisements  are  all  taken  from  the  same  sheet,  printed 
a  few  months  since  at  the  Capital  of  the  American  Republic  : 

"  CASH  FOR  Two  HUNDRED  NEGROES. 

"  We  will  give  cash  for  two  hundred  likely  young  negroes  of  both 
sexes,  families  included.  Persons  wishing  to  dispose  of  their  slaves, 
will  do  well  to  give  us  a  call,  as  we  will  give  higher  prices  in  cash  than 
any  other  purchasers  who  are  now  or  may  hereafter  come  into  this 
MARKET.  All  communications  will  meet  attention.  We  can  at  all 
times  be  found  at  our  residence  on  Seventh  street,  immediately  south 
of  the  Centre  Market-house,  Washington,  D.  C. 

"  September  13,  1834.  Joseph  W.  Neal  &  Co." 

"  CASH  FOR  FOUR  HUNDRED  NEGROES, 

Including  both  sexes,  from  twelve  to  twenty-five  years  of  age.  Per 
sons  having  likely  servants  to  dispose  of,  will  find  it  to  their  interest  to 
give  us  a  call,  as  we  will  give  higher  prices  in  cash  than  any  other  pur 
chaser  who  is  now  or  may  hereafter  come  into  this  MARKET. 

"  Franklin,  Armfield  &  Co. 
"  Alexandria,  September  1st,  1834." 


AMERICAN  ANTI-SLAVERY  SOCIETY.  157 

"  CASH  FOR  ONE  HUNDRED  NEGROES, 

Including  both  sexes,  from  twelve  to  twenty-five  years  of  age.  Persons 
having  likely  servants  to  dispose  of,  will  find  it  to  their  interest  to  give  us 
a  call,  as  we  will  give  higher  prices  in  cash  than  any  other  purchaser 
who  is  now  in  this  city. 

"  We  can  at  all  times  be  found  at  Isaac  Beer's  tavern,  a  few  doors 
below  Lloyd's  tavern,  opposite  Centre  Market,  Washington  city.  All 
communications  promptly  attended  to. 

"  September  1st,  1834.  Birch  &  Jones." 

Thus  we  find  cash  offered  for  seven  hundred  slaves  at  one 
time,  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Does  any  one  inquire  how 
these  slaves  are  to  be  disposed  of  ?  We  call  his  attention  to  the 
following  advertisement  in  the  same  paper : 

"  ALEXANDRIA  AND  NEW  ORLEANS  PACKETS. 

"  Brig  TRIBUNE,  Captain  Smith,  and  Brig  UNCAS,  Captain  Boush, 
will  resume  their  regular  trips  on  the  20th  of  October :  one  of  which 
will  leave  this  port  every  thirty  days  throughout  the  shipping  season. 
They  are  vessels  of  the  first  class,  commanded  by  experienced  officers, 
and  will  at  all  times  go  up  the  Mississippi  by  steam,  and  every  exertion 
used  to  promote  the  interests  of  shippers  and  comfort  of  passengers. 
Apply  to  the  Captains  on  board,  or  to 

"Franklin  &  Armfield. 

"  Alexandria,  September  1st." 

Most  grievously  disappointed  and  astonished  would  any  North 
ern  gentleman  be,  who  had  taken  passage  in  one  of  these  Alex 
andria  and  New  Orleans  packets,  on  finding  himself  on  board  a 
SLAVER. 

From  a  letter  of  the  23d  of  January,  1834,  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Leavitt,  and  published  in  New  York,  it  appears  that  lie  visited 
the  slave-factory  of  Franklin  &  Armfield,  at  Alexandria,  and 
was  "  informed  by  one  of  the  principals,  that  the  number  of 
slaves  carried  from  the  District  last  year  wTas  about  one  thou 
sand,  but  it  would  be  much  greater  this  year.  He  expected 
their  house  alone  would  ship  at  least  eleven  or  twelve  hundred. 
They  had  tivo  vessels  of  their  own  constantly  employed  in  car 
rying  slaves  to  New  Orleans."  One  of  the  vessels  being  in 
port,  Mr.  Leavitt  went  on  board  of  her. 

"  Her  name  is  the  TRIBUNE.  The  Captain  very  obligingly  took  us 
to  all  parts  of  the  vessel.  The  hold  is  appropriated  to  the  slaves,  and 

14* 


158 

is  divided  into  two  apartments.  The  after-hold  will  carry  about  eighty 
women,  and  the  other  about  one  hundred  men.  On  either  side  were 
two  platforms  running  the  whole  length  ;  one  raised  a  few  inches,  and 
the  other  half  way  up  to  the  deck.  They  were  about  five  or  six  feet 
deep.  On  these  the  slaves  lie,  as  close  as  they  can  stow  away." 

In  1831,  the  Brig  Comet,  a  slaver,  belonging  to  this  very 
house,  and  which  had  sailed  from  Alexandria  with  a  cargo  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty  slaves,  was  wrecked  on  Abaco,  one  of  the 
Bahamas. 

But  this  vile  commerce  is  carried  on  by  land,  as  well  as  by 
water.  Slave-conies  are  formed  at  the  prisons  in  the  District, 
and  thence  set  off  on  their  dreary  journey  into  the  interior,  liter 
ally  in  chains.  A  gentleman  thus  describes  a  coffle  he  met  on 
the  road  in  Kentucky  : 

"  I  discovered  about  forty  black  men  all  chained  together  in  the  fol 
lowing  manner :  —  each  of  them  was  hand-cuffed,  and  they  were 
arranged  in  rank  and  file.  A  chain,  perhaps  forty  feet  long,  was 
stretched  between  the  two  ranks,  to  which  short  chains  were  joined, 
which  connected  with  the  hand-cuffs.  Behind  them  were,  I  suppose, 
thirty  women  in  double  rank  ;  the  couples  tied  hand  to  hand" 

These  conies  pass  the  very  Capitol  in  which  are  assembled 
the  Legislators  by  whom  they  are  authorized,  and  over  whose 
heads  is  floating  the  broad  banner  of  the  Republic,  too  justly, 
alas  !  in  such  instances,  described  by  an  English  satirist  as 

"  The  fustian  flag  that  proudly  waves, 
In  splendid  mockery  o'er  a  land  of  slaves." 

But  the  tale  of  iniquity  and  infamy  is  not  yet  ended.  In  the 
Capital  of  our  confederated  Republic,  and  with  the  sanction  of 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  of  America,  MEN  ARE  LI 
CENSED  FOR  FOUR  HUNDRED  DOLLARS  TO  DEAL  IN  HUMAN 
FLESH  ! 

And  now  we  ask,  Ought  these  things  so  to  be  ?  If  not,  who 
can  remedy  them  ?  There  is  no  power  on  earth  but  Congress. 
No  State  Legislature  can  interfere  with  the  District  of  Colum 
bia,  or  suppress  the  accursed  traffic  of  which  it  is  the  seat.  But 
who  shall  rouse  Congress  to  action  ?  Do  we  wait  for  the  inter 
position  of  slave-holders  ?  It  is  they  who  foster  and  encourage 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  159 

the  trade.  Do  we  appeal  to  the  benevolence  of  the  Colonization 
Society  ?  Alas,  all  their  sympathy  is  expended  on  the  victims 
of  the  African  commerce  ;  their  constitution  authorizes  no  inter 
ference  with  the  American  traffic.  We  have  seen  how  far  their 
first  President  himself  embarked  in  this  trade.  No  less  than 
four  Vice  Presidents  of  the  Society  are  at  this  moment,  Feb 
ruary,  1835,  members  of  Congress,  and  three  of  them  Senators; 
but  not  a  word  has  fallen  from  their  lips,  relative  to  slavery,  or 
the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  We  are  wrong ; 
one  of  them  has  spoken. 

Mr.  CHARLES  FENTON  MERCER,  one  of  the  most  devoted 
officers  of  the  Society,  during  the  present  session  of  Congress 
voted  to  lay  on  the  table  a  petition  presented  to  the  House  of 
Representatives  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District,  thus 
endeavoring  to  stifle  all  inquiry  into  those  outrages  upon  human 
rights  and  human  happiness  which  are  perpetrated  under  the 
authority  of  the  national  Legislature.  Yet  this  very  gentleman 
has  distinguished  himself  by  his  zeal  against  the  African  slave- 
trade. 

The  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  avows  its  intention  to 
endeavor  to  influence  Congress  to  refuse  any  longer  to  authorize 
these  abominations.  And  is  it  for  this  avowal  that  its  members 
are  branded  as  traitors  and  nullifiers  ?  If  so,  then  they  appeal 
for  their  justification  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

By  the  8th  Section  of  the  1st  Article  of  that  instrument  Con 
gress  is  authorized  to  "  exercise  exclusive  legislation  in  all  cases 
whatsoever"  over  the  District  of  Columbia ;  and  by  the  first 
article  of  the  amendments,  Congress  is  restrained  from  making 
any  law  "  abridging  the  freedom  of  speech  or  the  press,  or  the 
right  of  the  people  peaceably  to  assemble,  and  to  petition  the 
government  for  a  redress  of  grievances."  Hence  abolitionists 
have  believed  that  Congress  possess  the  right  to  abolish  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  that  they  themselves  are 
authorized  to  petition  that  it  may  be  abolished.  Such  a  belief 
may,  perhaps,  indicate  a  "  wild  fanaticism ; "  it  seems,  however, 
to  be  a  fanaticism  shared  by  the  Legislatures  of  Pennsylvania 
and  New  York,  and  even  by  the  House  of  Representatives. 


160  JAY'S  WORKS. 

In  1828,  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature,  by  an  almost  unani 
mous  vote : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Senators  of  this  State  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  are  hereby  requested  to  procure,  if  practicable,  the 
passage  of  a  law  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  in  such 
a  manner  as  they  may  consider  consistent  with  the  rights  of  individuals 
and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

On  the  9th  of  January,  1829,  the  House  of  Representatives 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Committee  of  the  District  of  Columbia  be 
instructed  to  inquire  into  the  expediency,  (not  the  right,)  of  providing 
by  law  for  the  gradual  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District,  in  such  man 
ner  that  no  individual  shall  be  injured  thereby." 

On  the  28th  of  January,  1829,  a  Committee  of  the  New  York 
Assembly  reported  to  the  House : 

"  Your  Committee  cannot  but  view  with  astonishment  that  in  the 
Capital  of  this  free  and  enlightened  country,  laws  should  exist,  by 
which  the  free  CITIZENS  of  a  State  are  liable,  without  trial,  and  even 
without  the  imputation  of  a  crime,  to  be  seized  while  prosecuting  their 
lawful  business,  immured  in  prison,  and  though  free,  unless  claimed  as 
a  slave,  to  be  sold  as  such  for  the  payment  of  JAIL  FEES." 

The  Committee  recommended  the  following  resolution,  which 
was  adopted  by  the  Assembly : 

"  Resolved,  (if  the  Senate  concur  herein)  That  the  Senators  of  this 
State,  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  be  and  are  hereby  instruct 
ed,  and  the  Representatives  of  this  State  are  requested  to  make  every 
possible  exertion^  to  effect  the  passage  of  a  law  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia." 

And-  now  again  do  we  ask,  are  abolitionists  fanatics  and  incen 
diaries,  and  nullifiers,  and  traitors,  and  all  that  is  foolish,  and  all 
that  is  wicked,  because  they  wish  Congress  to  suppress  slavery 
and  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia?  It  cannot 
be  that  Messrs.  Frelinghuysen,  Walworth,  Ogden,  and  other 
upright  and  intelligent  colonizationists  have  founded  their  griev 
ous  charges  against  abolitionists  on  this  ground.  Let  us  then 
see  how  far  abolitionists  have  merited  these  charges,  for  their 
endeavors  to  abolish  slavery  existing  under  the  authority  of  the 
several  States. 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  161 


CHAPTER    VI. 


SLAVERY   UNDER    STATE   AUTHORITY. 

WE  have  seen  that  the  charges  against  the  abolitionists 
are  vague  and  without  specifications.  Friend  Hubbard  and  Mr. 
Gurley,  however,  give  their  accusations  something  of  a  tangible 
shape.  The  one  asserts  that  abolitionists  are  laboring  to  abolish 
slavery  by  causing  the  national  legislation  to  bear  directly  on  the 
slave-holders,  and  compel  them  to  emancipate  their  slaves  :  the 
other  insists  that  it  is  one  of  their  fundamental  principles,  that 
slavery  is  to  be  abolished  in  a  great  degree  against  and  in  defi 
ance  of  the  will  of  the  South.  The  obvious  and  only  meaning 
of  these  assertions  is,  that  it  is  the  wish  and  object  of  the  aboli 
tionists  to  induce  Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  States. 
One  would  think  that  this  charge,  ^if  true,  might  be  easily  proved : 
some  petition,  some  recommendation  might  be  quoted;  but  so 
far  from  having  ever  seen  any  proof  of  this  charge,  we  have 
never  seen  even  an  attempt  to  prove  it. 

Perhaps  the  testimony  on  this  point  of  a  Vice  President  of 
the  American  Colonization  Society,  and  one  who  is  equally  dis 
tinguished  by  his  moral  worth  and  his  zeal  in  the  cause  of 
colonization,  will  be  listened  to  with  respect  by  many  of  his 
brethren.  Gerritt  Smith,  Esq.,  of  New  York,  in  a  speech  at  the 
Anniversary  Meeting  of  the  Society,  20th  of  January,  1834, 
speaking  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society,  remarked  : 

"  I  believe  that  Society  to  be  as  honest  as  our  own  —  as  benevolent 
and  patriotic  as  our  own.  Its  members  love  their  fellow-men,  and  love 
their  country,  and  love  the  union  of  the  States,  as  sincerely  and  as 
strongly  as  we  do ;  and  much  as  is  said  to  the  contrary  on  this  point,  I 
have  never  seen  a  particle  o/  evidence,  that  the  Anti-Slavery  Society 
meditates  any  interference  with  the  provisions  of  the  laws  of  the  slave 
States  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  It  alleges,  and  I  have  no  doubt,  sin 
cerely,  that  it  is  by  moral  influence  alone,  and  mainly  by  the  changes 
wrought  by  the  application  of  truth  to  the  conscience,  that  it  seeks  to 
compass  its  object." 

It  seems  Mr.  Smith  has  never  seen  a  particle  of  evidence  in 
support  of  the  charge  that  abolitionists  meditate  interference 


162 

with  the  laws  of  the  slave  States.  They  who  make  the  charge, 
offer  not  a  particle  of  evidence  in  its  behalf.  We  will  now 
offer  a  MASS  of  evidence  in  proof  of  its  utter  falsity. 

Our  first  witness  is  one  whose  competency  and  credibility  will 
not  be  questioned ;  and  who,  like  Mr.  Smith,  is  a  Vice  President 
of  the  Colonization  Society.  The  following  is  extracted  from  a 
letter  to  John  Bolton,  Esq.,  of  Savannah,  written  for  publica 
tion  by  the  Hon.  DANIEL  WEBSTER,  and  dated  17th  May,  1833 : 

"  In  my  opinion,  the  domestic  slavery  of  the  Southern  States  is  a 
subject  within  the  exclusive  control  of  the  States  themselves;  and  this, 
I  am  sure,  is  the  opinion  of  the  whole  North.  Congress  has  no  authority 
to  interfere  in  the  emancipation  of  slaves,  or  in  the  treatment  of  them 
in  any  of  the  States.  This  was  so  resolved  in  the  House  of  Represen 
tatives  in  1790,  on  the  report  of  a  committee  consisting  almost  entirely 
of  Northern  members ;  and  I  do  not  know  an  instance  of  the  expression 
of  a  different  opinion  in  either  House  of  Congress  since.  I  cannot  say 
that  particular  individuals  might  not  possibly  be  found,  who  suppose 
that  Congress  may  possess  some  power  over  the  subject,  but  I  do  not 
know  any  such  persons,  and  if  there  be  any,  I  am  sure  they  are  very- 
few.  The  servitude  of  so  great  a  portion  of  the  population  of  the  South 
is  undoubtedly  regarded  at  the  North  as  a  great  evil,  moral  and  politi 
cal,  and  the  discussions  upon  it  which  have  recently  taken  place  in  the 
Legislatures  of  several  of  the  slave-holding  States,  have  been  read  with 
very  deep  interest.  But  it  is  regarded,  nevertheless,  as  an  evil,  the 
remedy  for  which  lies  with  those  Legislatures  themselves,  to  be  provided 
and  applied  according  to  their  own  sense  of  policy  and  duty.  The  im 
putations  which  you  say,  and  say  truly,  are  constantly  made  against  the 
North,  arc,  in  my  opinion,  entirely  destitute  of  any  just  foundation." 

Thus  we  find  that  Mr.  Webster,  living  in  Boston,  the  seat  of 
the  New  England  Anti-Slavery  Society,  a  fellow-townsman  of 
Garrison's,  and  surrounded  by  abolitionists,  knows  nothing  of 
the  nullifiers  denounced  by  Mr.  Ogden,  nothing  of  the  men  who 
Mr.  Gurley  says  are  for  freeing  the  slaves  in  defiance  of  the  will 
of  the  South,  nothing  of  those  who  the  North  Carolina  Quaker 
tells  us,  are  for  bringing  the  "  national  legislation  "  to  bear  upon 
emancipation. 

And  has  DANIEL  WEBSTER,  a  sworn  sentinel  on  the  ramparts 
of  the  Constitution,  been  sleeping  at  his  post,  and  is  it  to  more 
faithful  and  more  intelligent  watchmen,  that  we  owe  the  discov 
ery  of  the  meditated  treason  ? 

Mr.  Webster's  letter  contains,  as  far  as  it  goes,  THE  POUTI- 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  163 

CAL  CREED  OF  THE  ABOLITIONISTS,  and  we  may  challenge  the 
whole  Colonization  Society  to  name  a  single  abolitionist  who 
does  not  most  heartily  assent  to  its  doctrines.  The  New  York 
Emancipator  transferred  the  letter  to  its  columns,  remarking  : 

"  Mr.  Webster's  opinion  on  the  subject  of  slavery  in  the  States  of 
this  Union,  so  far  as  expressed,  is  just  the  same  as  has  been  more 
than  once  avowed  in  every  Anti-Slavery  paper  in  the  country  —  that 
it  is  a  subject  within  the  exclusive  control  of  the  States  themselves." 
Emancipator,  Qth  July,  1833. 

Not  only  has  Mr.  Garrison  declared  his  readiness  to  sign  his 
name  to  every  sentiment  expressed  in  Mr.  Webster's  letter,  but 
he  has  used  in  the  Liberator  the  following  language : 

"  Abolitionists  as  clearly  understand,  and  as  sacredly  regard  the 
constitutional  powers  of  Congress,  as  do  their  traducers ;  and  they 
know,  and  have  again  and  again  asserted,  that  Congress  has  no  more 
rightful  authority  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  Southern  slavery  than  it  has  to 
legislate  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  French  colonies." 

We  will  now  select  a  few  from  the  many  official  declarations 
of  abolitionists  on  this  subject. 

"  The  national  compact  was  so  framed  as  to  guarantee  the  legal  pos 
session  of  slaves ;  and  physical  interference  would  be  a  violation  of 
Christian  principles."  1st  Rep.  of  New  England  Anti-Slavery  Society, 
p.  21. 

"  We  do  not  aim  at  any  interference  with  the  constitutional  rights 
of  the  slave-holding  States  ;  for  Congress,  as  is  well  understood,  has  no 
power  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  several  States."  Address  of  the  N.  Y. 
city  Anti-Slavery  Society,  p.  5. 

"  We  freely  and  unanimously  recognize  the  sovereignty  of  each 
State,  to  legislate  exclusively  on  the  subject  of  slavery  which  is  tolerated 
within  its  limits ;  we  consider  that  Congress  has  no  right  to  interfere 
with  any  of  the  slave  States  in  relation  to  this  subject."  Declaration  of 
Anti-Slavery  Convention  at  Philadelphia,  4th  of  December,  1833. 

"  While  it  admits  that  each  State  in  which  slavery  exists  has  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  exclusive  right  to  legislate  in  regard 
to  its  abolition,  it  shall  aim  to  convince  all  our  fellow-citizens,  by  argu 
ments  addressed  to  their  understandings  and  consciences,  that  slave- 
holding  is  a  heinous  sin  in  the  sight  of  God."  Constitution  of  American 
Anti-Slavery  Society. 

In  December,  1833,  the  managers  of  the  New  York  city 
Anti-Slavery  Society  printed  and  circulated  a  petition  to  Con- 


164  JAY'S  WORKS. 

gress,  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
It  commenced  as  follows : 

"  To  THE  HONORABLE,  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES. 

"  Your  petitioners,  inhabitants  of  the  city  of  New  York,  beg  leave 
to  represent  to  your  Honorable  Body,  that  whatever  views  they  may 
entertain  of  the  evils  of  slavery  as  it  exists  in  certain  States  of  the 
Federal  Union,  they  are  fully  aware  that  these  evils  are  beyond  the 
constitutional  control  of  the  federal  government;  and  so  far  from  solicit 
ing  your  interposition  for  their  removal,  they  would  deprecate  the 
interference  of  Congress  on  this  subject,  as  a  violation  of  the  national 
compact." 

The  petition  then  proceeds  to  assert  the  constitutional  power 
of  Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District,  and  asks  for  its 
exercise. 

And  now  we  ask,  is  there  anything  in  the  extracts  we  have 
given,  to  justify,  excuse,  or  palliate  the  heavy  accusations  made 
against  abolitionists?  Surely  ti  must  now  be  conceded  that 
however  unconstitutional  may  be  the  emancipation  contemplated 
by  abolitionists,  it  is  not  to  be  effected  by  Congress.  We  lament 
that  Chancellor  Walworth  did  not  condescend  to  explain  how 
and  why  it  was  unconstitutional.  He  is  accustomed  to  assign 
reasons  for  his  decisions,  and  it  may  fairly  be  doubted  whether, 
in  withholding  the  reasons  for  the  judgment  he  has  pronounced 
.against  abolitionists,  he  has  administered  equity.  He  has  ad 
judged  that  the  emancipation  contemplated  by  abolitionists 
would  "  violate  the  rights  of  property  ;  "  but  in  what  way,  does 
not  appear.  As  physical  force  is  disclaimed,  and  congressional 
interference  deprecated,  the  alleged  violation  of  property  must 
arise  from  the  appeals  made  to  the  holders  to  surrender  it.  But 
surely  the  President  of  the  New  York  Temperance  Society  does 
not  regard  property  in  human  flesh  and  blood  so  much  more 
sacred  than  property  in  rum,  that  while  he  is  laboring  to  induce 
the  owners  of  the  latter,  throughout  the  United  States,  to  part 
with  their  property,  he  looks  upon  every  man  who  tells  his 
fellow-citizens  that  it  is  their  duty  to  manumit  their  slaves,  as 
violating  the  rights  of  property  !  The  venders  of  ardent  spirits 
in  New  Orleans  and  elsewhere,  have  as  valid  and  constitutional 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  165 

a  title  to  their  liquors  as  they  have  to  their  slaves.  Now  hear 
what  Mr.  Frelinghuysen  says  of  a  traffic  expressly  sanctioned 
by  the  laws  of  every  State  in  the  Union : 

"  It  is  mere  tampering  •with  temptation  to  come  short  of  positive, 
decided,  and  uncompromising  opposition.  We  must  not  only  resist, 
we  must  drive  it.  To  stand  on  the  defensive  merely,  is.  to  aid  in  its 
triumph."  7th  Rep.  Am.  Temp.  Soc.,  p.  51. 

Yet  they  who  by  arguments  are  resisting,  or  driving  the 
traffic  in  the  souls  and  bodies  of  men,  are  accused  of  "  seeking 
to  destroy  our  happy  Union  !  " 

The  State  Legislatures  have  as  much  right  to  authorize 
lotteries,  as  they  have  to  authorize  slavery,  yet  the  Pennsylva 
nia  Society  for  abolishing  lotteries  is  established  for  the  avowed 
purpose  of  abolishing,  by  moral  influence,  lotteries  in  other 
States,  for  there  are  none  in  its  own.  No  objection  is  made  to 
the  constitutionality  of  that  Society,  yet  epithets  seem  to  be 
wanting  to  express  the  abhorrence  felt  for  those  who  are  aim 
ing  by  the  same  means  to  rescue  millions  from  a  bondage 
destructive  to  their  happiness  in  this  world,  and  in  that  which  is 
to  come  ! 

In  the  remarks  we  have  made  on  the  language  used  by  Chan 
cellor  Walworth  and  his  two  associates,  no  unkind  feelings  have 
mingled.  Not  a  suspicion  of  the  goodness  of  their  motives  has 
crossed  our  mind  ;  we  admire  them  for  their  talents,  and  esteem 
them  for  their  virtues ;  and  sincerely  do  we  regret,  that  men 
who  possess  the  power  of  doing  so  much  good,  should  ever, 
through  want  of  information,  so  grievously  misapply  it. 

And  now  it  may  be  asked,  if  abolitionists  intend  to  use  only 
moral  means,  what  good  can  they  effect  by  using  those  means  at 
the  North,  where  slavery  does  not  exist  ?  But  although  slavery 
does  not  exist  at  the  North,  it  is  excused  and  justified  at  the 
North ;  and  Southern  Christians  are  countenanced  in  keeping 
their  fellow-men  in  bondage  and  in  ignorance,  by  their  Northern 
brethren.  We  have  already  seen  the  baneful  influence  of  the 
Colonization  Society  on  the  treatment  of  the  free  negroes  at  the 
North ;  the  Black  Act  of  Connecticut  is  still  in  force,  and  Judge 
Daggett's  decision  remains  unreversed.  Slavery  is  in  full  vigor 
15 


166  JAY'S  WORKS. 

under  the  authority  of  Congress,  and  sanctioned  by  a  majority 
consisting  of  Northern  members  ;  and  our  whole  country  is  dis 
graced,  and  humanity  and  religion  outraged  by  an  extensive  and 
abominable  slave-trade,  conducted  under  the  same  sanction.  If, 
therefore,  it  could  be  foreseen,  that  no  slave  in  any  of  the  States 
would  ever  be  liberated,  through  the  influence  of  Northern  Anti- 
Slavery  Societies,  there  would  still  remain  great  and  glorious 
objects  to  stimulate  their  zeal,  to  employ  all  their  energies,  and 
abundantly  to  reward  all  their  labors.  But  neither  their  labors 
nor  rewards  will  be  confined  to  the  North.  The  consciences  of 
Southern  Christians,  so  long  lulled  by  the  opiate  of  colonization, 
are  awakening  to  duty.  Southern  divines  are  beginning  to 
acknowledge  the  sinfulness  of  slavery,  and  recent  slave-holders 
are  now  proclaiming  the  safety  and  duty  of  immediate  emanci 
pation. 

While  Northern  colonizationists  are  sounding  the  tocsin,  and 
girding  on  their  armor,  and  rushing  to  the  battle,  to  protect  the 
rights  of  their  Southern  brethren,  those  very  brethren  are  begin 
ning  to  listen  to  the  friendly  admonitions  of  abolitionists,  and 
are  inquiring  what  they  must  do  to  escape  the  mighty  perils  to 
which  they  are  exposed.  On  the  19th  of  March,  a  convention 
of  gentlemen  from  different  parts  of  Kentucky  assembled  at 
Danville,  and  amid  a  slave  population  of  165,000,  organized 
"  THE  KENTUCKY  ANTI-SLAVERY  SOCIETY,  Auxiliary  to  the 
American  Anti-Slavery  Society ;  and  appointed  a  delegate  to 
attend  the  anniversary  of  the  parent  Institution  at  New  York ! 

While  the  professors  of  many  of  our  Northern  colleges  are 
laboring  with  trembling  solicitude  to  stifle  all  discussion  respect 
ing  slavery  among  their  pupils,  JAMES  M.  BUCHANAN,  a  profes 
sor  of  Centre  College,  has  had  the  moral  courage  to  accept  the 
station  of  President  of  the  Kentucky  Society.  Indeed,  the 
whole  nation  has  been  roused  from  its  lethargy,  and  in  almost 
every  circle  and  neighborhood,  the  subject  of  abolition  is  attract 
ing  attention  ;  the-  violence  and  persecution  experienced  by 
abolitionists,  instead  of  suppressing,  has  promoted  discussion ; 
and  they  have  reason  to  hope,  that  slavery  will  ultimately  be 
abolished,  by  the  voluntary  action  of  the  South,  in  compliance 
with  the  dictates  of  policy  and  of  duty. 


AMERICAN   ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  167 


CHAPTER    VII. 


SAFETY    OF    IMMEDIATE    EMANCIPATION. 

ALTHOUGH  we  may  have  succeeded  in  proving  that  the  eman 
cipation  contemplated  by  abolitionists  is  not  "  unconstitutional," 
yet  many  may  conscientiously  doubt  whether  it  would  be  safe 
and  wise. 

A  few  years  only  have  elapsed  since  the  use  of  ardent  spirits 
was  universally  countenanced  by  all  classes  of  the  community ; 
and  when  the  few  who  contended  that  their  use  was  sinful,  and 
ought  to  be  immediately  abandoned,  were  deemed  no  less  vision 
ary  and  fanatical  than  those  are  now  who  hold  the  same  doctrine 
in  regard  to  slavery. 

The  whole  Colonization  Society,  with  scarcely  a  solitary 
exception,*  denounce  immediate  emancipation  as  dangerous,  or 
rather  as  utterly  ruinous,  to  the  whites.  Their  objections  were 
thus  briefly  summed  up  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hawkes,  in  his  speech 
at  a  colonization  meeting  in  New  York  : 

"  But  if  the  plan  of  colonization  be  abandoned,  what  remains  ?  Are 
the  slaves  fitted  for  freedom  ?  No ;  and  if  they  are  let  loose  at  once, 
they  must  of  necessity,  to  procure  a  living,  either  beg  or  steal,  or  de 
stroy  and  displace  the  whites."  New  York  Com.  Adv.,  10th  Oct.,  1833. 

Here  we  have  broad,  unqualified  assertions,  without  a  particle 
of  proof.  We  find  it  taken  for  granted,  that  if  the  slaves  are 
at  once  restored  to  liberty,  they  must,  from  necessity,  beg  or 
steal,  or  destroy  and  displace  the  whites.  What  causes  will 
produce  this  necessity,  we  are  uninformed ;  why  it  will  be  im 
possible  for  liberated  slaves  to  work  for  wages,  is  unexplained. 
Slavery  is  property  in  human  beings.  Immediate  emancipation 
is  therefore  nothing  more  than  the  immediate  cessation  of  this 
property.  But  how  does  this  cessation  of  property  imply  that 
those  who  were  the  subjects  of  it  must  be  "  let  loose  ?  "  Will 
they  not,  like  other  persons,  be  subject  to  the  control  of  law, 

*  The  only  exception  known  to  the  writer,  is  G.  Smith,  Esq. 


168  JAY'S  WOKKS. 

and  responsible  for  their  conduct  ?  If  incapable  of  providing 
for  themselves,  may  they  not,  like  children,  apprentices,  and 
paupers,  be  compelled  to  labor  for  their  own  maintenance  ?  Im 
mediate  emancipation  does  not  necessarily  contemplate  any 
relaxation  of  the  restraints  of  government  or  morality ;  any 
admission  to  political  rights,  or  improper  exemption  from  com 
pulsory  labor.  What  then  does  such  emancipation  imply  ?  It 
implies,  that  black  men,  being  no  longer  property,  will  be  capa 
ble  of  entering  into  the  marriage  state,  and  of  exercising  the 
rights,  and  enjoying  the  blessings  of  the  conjugal  and  parental 
relations  ;  it  implies,  that  they  will  be  entitled  to  the  fruits  of 
their  honest  industry,  to  the  protection  of  the  laws  of  the  land, 
and  to  the  privilege  of  securing  a  happy  immortality,  by  learning 
and  obeying  the  will  of  their  Creator. 

Now  it  is  almost  universally  supposed  that  such  emancipation 
would,  as  a  matter  of  course,  lead  to  insurrection,  robbery,  and 
massacre.  Yet  this  opinion  will,  on  examination,  be  found 
utterly  irreconcilable  with  the  divine  economy,  the  principles  of 
human  nature,  and  the  testimony  of  experience. 

It  is  a  trite  remark,  that  nations  are  punished  and  rewarded 
in  this  world,  and  individuals  in  the  next ;  and  both  sacred  and 
profane  history  will  be  searched  in  vain  for  an  instance  in  which 
the  Supreme  Ruler  has  permitted  a  nation  to  suffer  for  doing 
justice  and  loving  mercy.  To  believe  that  God  would  permit 
any  community  to  be  destroyed,  merely  because  it  had  ceased 
to  do  evil,  is  to  call  in  question  the  equity  of  his  government,  or 
the  power  of  his  providence.  Who  that  acknowledges  the  truth 
of  Revelation,  can  doubt,  that  if  slavery  be  sinful,  the  sooner 
we  part  with  it,  the  more  confidently  may  we  rely  on  the  divine 
favor  and  protection  ?  Infidelity  alone  will  seek  safety  in  human 
counsels,  when  opposed  to  the  divine  will. 

But  the  opinion  we  are  considering  is  no  less  at  variance  with 
the  motives  and  passions  of  our  common  nature  than  with  the 
dictates  of  Christian  faith. 

What  is  the  theory  on  which  this  opinion  rests  ?  Why,  that 
cruelty,  injustice  and  grievous  oppression,  render  men  quiet, 
docile,  and  inoffensive  subjects  ;  and  that  if  delivered  from  this 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  169 

cruelty,  injustice,  and  oppression,  they  will  rob  and  murder  their 
deliverers  ! 

This  theory  is  happily  unsupported  by  any  facts,  and  rests 
upon  the  simple  dogma  that  the  slaves  are  not  yet  fitted  for 
freedom.  Now  we  would  ask,  What  it  meant  by  fitness  for 
freedom  ?  Ought  a  man  to  be  a  slave,  unless  he  can  read,  write, 
and  cipher  ?  Must  he  be  taught  accounts,  before  he  can  receive 
wages  ?  Should  he  understand  law,  before  he  enjoys  its  pro 
tection  ?  Must  he  be  instructed  in  morals,  before  he  reads  his 
Bible  ?  If  all  these  are  pre-requisites  for  freedom,  how  and 
when  are  they  to  be  acquired  in  slavery  ? 

If  one  century  of  bondage  has  not  produced  this  fitness,  how 
many  will  ?  Are  our  slaves  more  fit  now,  than  they  were  ten, 
twenty,  fifty  years  ago  ?  Let  the  history  of  slave  legislation 
answer  the  inquiry.  When  the  British  government  insisted  that 
female  slaves  should  no  longer  be  flogged  naked  in  the  colonies, 
the  Jamaica  legislature  replied,  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
lay  aside  the  practice  "  UNTIL  the  negro  women  have  acquired 
more  of  the  sense  of  shame  which  distinguishes  European 
females."  Slaves,  while  such,  will  become  fit  for  freedom  as 
soon,  but  not  sooner,  than  negro  women  will  become  modest  in 
consequence  of  the  West  Indian  mode  of  correction.  No  post 
ponement  of  emancipation  will  increase  the  fitness  of  slaves  for 
freedom ;  and  to  wait  for  this  fitness,  resembles  the  conduct  of 
the  simpleton  who  loitered  by  the  brook,  expecting  to  pass  dry 
shod  after  the  water  had  run  off.  * 

The  conclusion  to  which  religion  and  common  sense  would 
lead  us  on  this  subject,  is  most  abundantly  confirmed  by  experi 
ence.  Passing  by  the  emancipation  of  the  serfs  of  Europe,  let 
us  advert  to  various  instances  of  the  sudden  abolition  of  negro 
slavery,  and  let  us  see  how  far  the  theory  we  are  considering  is 
supported  by  facts. 

On  the  10th  of  October,  1811,  the  Congress  of  Chili  decreed 
that  every  child  born  after  that  day  should  be  free. 

On  the  9th  of  April,  1812,  the  government  of  Buenos  Ayres 
ordered  that  every  child  born  after  1st  January,  1813,  should 
be  free. 

15* 


170  JAY'S  WORKS. 

On  the  19th  of  July,  1821,  the  Congress  of  Colombia  passed 
an  act,  emancipating  all  slaves  who  had  borne  arms  in  favor  of 
the  Republic,  and  providing  for  the  emancipation,  in  eighteen 
years,  of  the  whole  slave  population  of  280,000. 

On  the  15th  of  September,  1821,  the  government  of  Mexico 
granted  instantaneous  and  unconditional  emancipation  to  every 
slave. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1827,  ten  thousand  slaves  were  emanci 
pated  in  the  State  of  New  York  by  act  of  the  Legislature. 

In  all  these  various  instances,  not  one  case  of  insurrection  or 
of  bloodshed  is  known  to  have  resulted  from  emancipation.  But 
St.  Domingo  —  ah,  what  recollections  are  awakened  by  that 
name  !  With  that  name  are  associated  the  most  irrefragable 
proofs  of  the  safety  and  wisdom  of  immediate  emancipation, 
and  of  the  ability  of  the  African  race  to  value,  defend,  and 
enjoy  the  blessings  of  freedom.  The  apologists  of  slavery  are 
constantly  reminding  abolitionists  of  the  "  SCENES  IN  ST.  DO 
MINGO."  Were  the  public  familiar  with  the  origin  and  history 
of  those  scenes,  none  but  abolitionists  would  dare  to  refer  to 
them.  We  will  endeavor  in  the  next  chapter  to  dispel  the  ignor 
ance  which  so  extensively  prevails  relative  to  the  "  scenes  in  St. 
Domingo,"  and  we  trust  our  efforts  will  furnish  new  confirmation 
of  the  great  truth,  that  the  path  of  duty  is  the  path  of  safety. 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  171 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

EMANCIPATION    IN    ST.   DOMINGO    AND    GUADALOUPE,  AND 
PRESENT    STATE    OF    ST.    DOMINGO. 

IN  1790,  the  population  of  the  French  part  of  St.  Domingo 
was  estimated  at  686,000.  Of  this  number,  42,000  were  white, 
44,000  free  people  of  color,  and  600,000  slaves.  At  the  com 
mencement  of  the  French  Revolution  the  free  colored  people 
petitioned  the  National  Assembly  to  be  admitted  to  political 
rights,  and  sent  a  deputation  to  Paris  to  attend  to  their  interests. 
On  the  8th  of  March,  1790,  a  law  was  passed,  granting  to  the 
colonies  the  right  of  holding  representative  assemblies,  and  of 
exercising,  to  a  certain  extent,  legislative  authority.  On  the 
28th  of  the  same  month,  another  law  was  passed,  declaring  that 
"  all  free  persons  in  the  colonies,  who  were  proprietors,  and 
residents  of  two  years'  [standing,  and  who  contribute  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  State,  shall  exercise  the  right  of  voting." 

The  planters  insisted  that  this  law  did  not  apply  to  free  color 
ed  persons.  They  proceeded  to  elect  a  general  assembly,  and 
in  this  election  the  free  blacks  were,  with  but  few  exceptions, 
prevented  from  voting.  The  newly  elected  assembly  issued  a 
manifesto,  declaring  they  would  rather  die,  than  divide  their 
political  rights  writh  "  a  bastard  and  degenerated  race."  A  por 
tion  of  the  free  colored  people  resolved  to  maintain  the  rights 
given  them  by  the  mother  country,  and  assembled  in  arms  under 
one  of  their  own  number  named  Oge.  A  letter  addressed  by 
this  chief  to  the  St.  Domingo  assembly  is  fortunately  extant, 
and  explains  the  true  origin  of  those  awful  calamities,  which  it 
is  found  expedient  to  ascribe  to  the  abolition  of  slavery. 

"  SIRS,  —  A  prejudice  for  a  long  time  upheld,  is  at  last  about  to  fall. 
Charged  with  a  commission  honorable  to  myself,  I  call  upon  you  to 
proclaim  throughout  the  colony  the  decree  of  the  National  Assembly 
of  the  28th  of  March,  which  gives,  without  distinction,  to  every  free 
citizen  the  right  of  being  admitted  to  all  duties  and  functions  whatever. 
My  pretentions  are  just,  and  I  do  hope  you  will  regard  them.  /  shall 
not  have  recourse  to  any  raising  of  the  slave  gangs.  It  is  unnecessary, 


172  JAY'S  WORKS. 

and  would  be  unworthy  of  me.  I  wish  you  to  appreciate  duly  the 
purity  of  my  intentions.  When  I  solicited  of  the  National  Assembly  * 
the  decree  I  obtained  in  favor  of  our  American  colonists,  known  under 
the  hitherto  injurious  distinction  of  the  mixed  race,  /  never  compre 
hended  in  my  claims  the  negroes  in  a  state  of  slavery.  You  and  our  ad 
versaries  have  mixed  this  with  my  proceedings  to  destroy  my  estimation 
in  the  minds  of  all  well-disposed  people :  but  I  have  demanded  only 
concessions  for  a  class  of  free  men,  who  have  endured  the  yoke  of  your 
oppression  for  two  centuries.  We  have  no  wish  but  for  the  execution 
of  the  decree  of  the  28th  of  March.  We  insist  on  its  promulgation ; 
and  we  cease  not  to  repeat  to  our  friends,  that  our  adversaries  are  not 
merely  unjust  to  us,  but  to  themselves,  for  they  do  not  seem  to  know 
that  their  interests  are  one  with  ours.  Before  employing  ^the  means  at 
my  command,  I  will  see  what  good  temper  will  do  ;  but  if,  contrary  to 
my  object,  you  refuse  what  is  asked,  I  will  not  answer  for  those  disor 
ders  which  may  arise  from  merited  revenge." 

The  shout  of  battle  was  the  only  answer  returned  to  this  let 
ter.  The  free  blacks  were  defeated,  and  their  brave  leader 
being  taken  prisoner,  was,  with  a  barbarity  equalled  only  by  its 
folly,  broken  alive  on  the  wheel.  A  ferocious  struggle  now  com 
menced  between  the  two  parties,  and  Oge's  death  was  awfully 
avenged.  On  the  15th  of  May,  1791,  the  French  Convention 
issued  a  decree  declaring  explicitly,  that  "  free  colored  persons 
were  entitled  to  all  the  rights  of  citizenship."  The  planters, 
however,  refused  to  submit  till  after  2,000  whites  and  10,000 
blacks  had  perished.  The  free  blacks  had  armed  their  own 
slaves ;  and  many  of  the  slaves  belonging  to  the  whites,  taking 
advantage  of  the  disturbed  state  of  the  island,  revolted.  The 
general  assembly  at  length  became  alarmed,  and  on  the  20th  of 
September,  1791,  issued  a  proclamation  announcing  their  acqui 
escence  in  the  decree  of  the  15th  of  May,  admitting  the  free 
blacks  to  political  equality  with  the  whites.  This  proclamation 
immediately  restored  peace,  and  the  free  blacks  even  assisted  the 
planters  in  reducing  to  obedience  their  revolted  slaves.  The  peace, 
however,  was  of  short  duration.  Intelligence  was  soon  received 
that  the  French  Convention  had  yielded  to  the  clamors  of  the 
planters,  and  on  the  24th  of  September,  only  four  days  after  the 
Assembly's  proclamation,  had  repealed  the  decree  giving  politi 
cal  rights  to  the  free  blacks.  The  irritation  caused  by  this 

*  Oge  had  been  one  of  the  deputies  who  were  sent  to  Paris. 


AMERICAN   ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  173 

measure  may  easily  be  imagined,  and  the  feelings  of  the  free 
blacks  were  exasperated  by  an  act  of  folly  and  presumption  on 
the  part  of  the  Colonial  Assembly.  This  body  passed  an  order 
for  disarming  the  whole  free  colored  population.  That  popula 
tion,  however,  instead  of  surrendering  their  arms,  challenged 
their  proud  oppressors  to  take  them,  and  immediately  renewed 
the  war. 

On  the  4th  of  April,  1792,  the  vacillating  policy  of  the  French 
government  led  it  once  more  to  pass  a  decree,  investing  the  free 
negroes  in  the  colonies  with  political  rights ;  and  three  Commis 
sioners,  with  6,000  troops,  were  sent  to  St.  Domingo  to  enforce 
the  decree.  The  Commissioners  arrived  on  the  13th  of  Sep 
tember,  and  assumed  the  government  of  the  island.  In  June, 
1793,  they  quarrelled  with  the  governor,  and  each  party  took 
arms.  The  Commissioners  called  to  their  aid  3,000  revolted 
slaves,  promising  pardon  for  the  past,  and  freedom  for  the  future. 
About  this  time  it  was  estimated  that  no  less  than  10,000  of  the 
white  inhabitants  had  fled  from  the  island,  in  consequence  of  its 
disturbed  state,  and  this,  be  it  remembered,  before  a  single  slave 
had  been  emancipated.  The  Commissioners  were  successful  in 
their  contest  with  the  governor,  and  retained  the  supreme  power 
in  their  own  hands.  But  a  new  danger  threatened  them.  The 
planters  were  dissatisfied  with  the  political  rights  conferred  on  the 
blacks,  and  were  in  many  instances  hostile  to  the  Republic  which 
had  been  reared  on  the  ruins  of  the  French  Monarchy.  They 
therefore  entered  into  intrigues  with  the  British  Government, 
inviting  it  to  take  possession  of  the  island,  hoping  that  thus  the 
old  order  of  things  would  be  restored.  The  Commissioners 
became  acquainted  with  the  intentions  of  the  British  to  invade 
the  island.  Their  only  defensive  force  consisted  of  the  6,000 
French  troops  and  about  15,000  militia.  On  the  latter  they 
were  sensible  but  little  reliance  could  be  placed.  Under  these 
circumstances,  they  determined  to  emancipate  the  slaves,  in 
order  that  the  whole  colored  population  might  thus  be  induced 
to  array  itself  under  the  Republican  standard.  Bryant  Edwards, 
a  well-known  English  writer,  and  a  most  devoted  apologist  for 
slavery,  in  his  history  of  this  affair,  after  stating  as  a  fact 


174  JAY'S  WORKS. 

within  his  own  knowledge,  the  overtures  made  by  the  St.  Do 
mingo  planters  to  Great  Britain,  and  that  the  Commissioners 
could  not  muster  more  than  22,000  effective  men,  adds  ;  "  These 
being  necessarily  dispersed  in  detachments  throughout  the 
different  provinces,  became,  on  that  account,  little  formidable  to 
an  invading  army.  Aware  of  this  circumstance,  the  Commis 
sioners,  on  the  first  intimation  of  an  attack  from  the  English, 
resorted  to  the  desperate  expedient  of  proclaiming  all  manner  of 
slavery  abolished." 

The  proclamation  was  made  in  September,  1793,  and  on  the 
19th  of  the  same  month,  the  British  armament,  under^  Colonel 
White,  arrived  at  Jeremie,  and  took  possession  of  the  town,  and 
afterwards  entered  Port  au  Prince.  Thus  we  find  that  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  St.  Domingo  was  not,  as  is  generally 
supposed,  the  result  of  an  insurrection  by  the  slaves,  but  an  act 
of  political  expediency.  Let  us  now  see  what  were  the  conse 
quences  of  this  act.  The  whole  colored  population  remained 
loyal  to  the  Republican  cause.  The  British  were  masters  only 
of  the  soil  covered  by  their  troops,  and  at  length,  wearied  out  by 
the  inveterate  opposition  they  experienced,  they  abandoned  all 
hopes  of  conquest,  and  in  1798  evacuated  the  island.  In  the 
mean  time,  the  intercourse  between  the  colony  and  the  mother 
country  became  more  and  more  interrupted.  The  seas  were 
scoured  by  British  cruisers,  and  the  colonists  were  left  by  France 
to  govern  themselves.  The  whole  colonial  administration  had 
been  entirely  subverted,  the  Commmissioners  had  returned  to 
France,  -and  it  became  necessary  to  adopt  some  political  system. 
Under  these  circumstances,  Toussaint,  a  black,  who  had  acquired 
power  and  influence,  submitted,  in  1801,  to  a  general  assembly, 
a  republican  constitution,  which  was  adopted,  and  the  island  was 
declared  to  be  an  independent  State  on  the  1st  of  July,  1801. 
But  during  all  this  time,  what  was  the  conduct  of  the  emanci 
pated  slaves  ?  Before  we  answer  this  question,  let  us  remind  the 
reader  that  the  emancipation  was  not  only  immediate  but  unpre 
meditated.  No  measures  had  been  taken  to  Jit  about  600,000 
slaves  for  freedom,  but  suddenly,  unexpectedly,  almost  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye,  they  ceased  to  be  property,  and  were  in- 


AMERICAN   ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  175 

vested  with  the  rights  of  human  nature.  And  was  the  theory  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Hawkes  verified  in  St.  Domingo  ?  Did  the  manu 
mitted  slaves  maintain  themselves  by  begging  and  stealing,  or 
did  they  destroy  and  displace  the  whites  ?  Let  an  eye-witness 
answer  the  inquiry.  Col.  Malefant,  then  a  resident  on  the 
island,  says  in  his  'Memoire  historique  et  politique  des  colonies  et 
particulierement  de  celle  de  /St.  Domingue"  p.  58 :  — 

"  After  this  public  act  of  emancipation,  the  negroes  remained  quiet 
both  in  the  south  and  in  the  west,  and  they  continued  to  work  upon 
all  the  plantations.  There  were  estates,  indeed,  which  had  neither 
owners  nor  managers  resident  upon  them,  for  some  of  them  had 
been  put  in  prison  by  Montburn,  and  others,  fearing  the  same  fate, 
had  fled  to  the  quarter  which  had  just  been  given  up  to  the  English. 
Yet  upon  these  estates,  though  abandoned,  the  negroes  continued  their 
labors,  where  there  were  any,  even  inferior  agents  to  guide  them,  and 
on  those  estates  where  no  white  men  were  left  to  direct  them,  they 
betook  themselves  to  planting  of  provisions :  l>ut  upon  all  the  planta 
tions  where  the  whites  resided,  the  blacks  continued  to  labor  quietly  as 
before" 

In  another  place,  (p.  125,)  he  says: 

"  How  did  I  succeed  in  the  plain  of  the  Cul  de  Sac,  and  on  the 
plantation  Gouraud,  more  than  eight  months  after  liberty  had  been 
granted  to  the  blacks  ?  Let  those  who  knew  me  at  that  time,  and  even 
the  blacks  themselves  be  asked.  They  will  reply  that  not  a  single 
negro  upon  that  plantation,  consisting  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  labor 
ers,  refused  to  work,  and  yet  this  plantation  was  thought  to  be  under 
the  worst  discipline,  and  the  slaves  the  most  idle  of  any  in  the  plain. 
I  myself  inspired  the  same  activity  into  three  other  plantations  of 
which  I  had  the  management." 

He  goes  on  to  assert  that  "  the  colony  was  flourishing  under 
Toussairit  — the  whites  lived  happily,  and  in  peace  upon  their 
estates,  and  the  negroes  continued  to  ivork  for  them."  Toussaint 
came  into  power  under  the  French  authority,  1796,  and  re 
mained  in  power  till  1802,  or  the  commencement  of  the  war 
with  France.  Thus  it  appears  that  the  manumitted  slaves  con 
tinued  quietly  at  work,  from  their  emancipation  in  1793,  till 
1802,  a  period  of  about  eight  years. 

This  was  not,  let  it  be  remembered,  a  season  of  peace.  Dur 
ing  most  of  the  time  a  fierce  war  was  waged  against  the  English 
invaders.  In  this  war  a  portion  of  the  planters  took  part  with 


176  JAY'S  WORKS. 

the  enemy,  and  experienced  at  the  hands  of  the  blacks,  those 
cruelties  which  so  often  distinguish  a  civil  war.  But  on  a  careful 
and  scrupulous  examination  of  the  history  of  this  period,  we 
cannot  find,  that  from  the  date  of  the  emancipation  in  1793,  to 
the  French  invasion  in  1802,  a  single  white  man  was  injured  by 
the  liberated  slaves,  unless  he  had  previously  placed  himself  in 
the  attitude  of  a  political  enemy  by  siding  with  the  British. 
Immediately  on  the  evacuation  of  the  island  by  the  British,  pro 
found  tranquillity  prevailed,  and  the  planters  who  remained,  and 
the  emigrants  who  returned,  enjoyed  their  estates  without 
molestation. 

Malefant  is  not  the  only  witness  we  can  cite  to  these  facts. 
General  Lacroix,  who  published  his  "  Memoirs  for  a  history  of 
St.  Domingo,"  at  Paris,  in  1819,  speaking  of  the  colony,  in  1797, 
says : 

"  It  marched  as  by  enchantment  towards  its  ancient  splendor  :  culti 
vation  prospered ;  every  day  produced  perceptible  proofs  of  its  pro 
gress.  The  city  of  the  Cape,  and  the  plantations  of  the  North,  rose  up 
again  visibly  to  the  eye."  P.  311. 

The  author  of  "  the  History  of  St.  Domingo,"  printed  in  Lon 
don,  1818,  speaking  of  Toussaint,  says : 

"  When  he  restored  many  of  the  planters  to  their  estates,  there  was 
no  restoration  of  their  former  property  in  human  beings.  No  human 
being  was  to  be  bought  or  sold.  Severe  tasks,  flagellations,  and  scanty 
food,  were  no  longer  to  be  endured.  The  planters  were  obliged  to 
employ  their  laborers  on  the  footing  of  hired  servants  ;  and  the  negroes 
were  required  to  labor  for  their  own  livelihood.  The  amount  of 
remuneration  was  not  left  to  individual  generosity  or  private  agree 
ment,  but  it  was  fixed  by  law,  that  the  cultivators  should  have  for  their 
wages  a  third  part  of  the  crops.  While  this  ample  encouragement  was 
afforded  for  the  excitement  of  industry,  penalties  were  at  the  same 
time  denounced  for  the  punishment  of  idleness." 

"  The  effects  of  these  regulations  were  visible  throughout  the  coun 
try.  Obliged  to  work,  but  in  a  moderate  manner,  and  for  handsome 
wages,  and  at  liberty  for  the  most  part  to  choose  their  own  masters,  the 
plantation  negroes  were  in  general  contented,  healthy  and  happy."* 


*  These  representations  are  confirmed  by  the  fact,  that  the  exports  from 
.  Domingo  in  1801,  seven  years  after  emancipation,  were  of  sugar,  18,535,- 
270  Ibs. ;  cotton,  2,480,349  Ibs.    McCullocVs  Diet,  of 


Commerce,  p.  926. 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  177 

And  now  let  abolitionists  be  reminded  of  the  "  scenes  in  St. 
Domingo  ;  "  yes,  let  those  scenes  be  constantly  kept  before  the 
public  as  an  awful  and  affecting  memento  of  the  justice  due  to 
the  free  blacks,  and  as  a  glorious  demonstration  of  the  perfect 
safety  of  immediate  and  unconditional  emancipation. 

Yet  men  who  believe  it  safe  to  do  immediate  justice,  and  who 
find  from  history  that  God  never  permits  a  nation  to  suffer  for 
obeying  his  commands,  are  held  up  to  the  derision  and  detesta 
tion  of  the  community  as  fanatics  and  incendiaries.  Let  us  see 
what  new  proofs  of  their  fanaticism  are  afforded  by  the  history 
of  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  Guadaloupe. 

On  the  20th  of  April,  1794,  a  British  armament,  under  Sir 
Charles  Grey,  took  the  French  island  of  Guadaloupe,  many  of 
the  planters,  as  in  St.  Domingo,  being  royalists  and  favoring  the 
cause  of  the  invaders. 

On  the  5th  of  June  following,  a  French  force,  under  Victor 
Hugo,  arrived  to  dispute  the  possession  of  the  island.  The 
Republican  general  immediately  proclaimed  the  freedom  of  the 
slaves,  in  pursuance  of  a  decree  of  the  National  Assembly  of 
the  preceding  February,  and  arming  the  negroes,  led  them 
against  the  enemy.  The  English  were  soon  confined  within 
narrow  quarters,  and  by  the  10th  of  December,  were  compelled 
to  evacuate  the  island.  From  this  time,  Guadaloupe  remained 
a  dependance  of  France  till  1810,  when  it  was  retaken  by  the 
English. 

On  the  abolition  of  slavery  la  police  rurale  was  substituted 
for  it.  The  slaves  were  converted  into  free  laborers,  and  were 
entitled  to  their  food  and  one-fourth  of  the  produce  of  their 
labor.  They  were  85,000  in  number,  and  the  whites  only 
13,000.  So  far  was  the  cultivation  of  the  island  from  being 
suspended  by  emancipation,  that  in  1801,  an  official  report 
stated  the  plantations  as  follows,  viz. :  of  sugar,  390 ;  of  coffee, 
1355 ;  of  cotton,  328 ;  and  25  grass  farms.  The  peace  of 
Amiens  unhappily  afforded  Bonaparte  an  opportunity  to  re 
establish  slavery  in  Guadaloupe.  In  the  summer  of  1802, 
Eichepanse  landed  on  the  island  at  the  head  of  a  powerful 
French  force,  and  in  a  short  time,  by  the  indiscriminate  mas- 
16 


178  JAY'S  WORKS. 

sacre  of  all  who  opposed  his  purpose,  fulfilled  the  object  of 
his  mission  at  the  sacrifice,  it  is  said,  of  nearly  20,000  negro 
lives. 

Immediately  preceding  this  atrocious  act,  all  was  peace  and 
prosperity;  and  so  late  as  February,  1802,  the  supreme  council 
of  Guadaloupe,  in  an  official  document,  alluding  to  the  tran 
quillity  which  reigned  throughout  the  island,  observed : 

"  We  shall  have  the  satisfaction  of  having  given  an  example,  which 
will  prove  that  all  classes  of  people  may  live  in  perfect  harmony  with 
each  other,  under  an  administration  which  secures  JUSTICE  TO  ALL 

CLASSES." 

In  Guadaloupe,  we  see  an  instance  of  a  great  preponderating 
slave  population  suddenly  emancipated,  and  yet  peaceably  pur 
suing  their  labors  for  seven  years,  and  living  in  harmony  with 
the  white  proprietors. 

If  we  are  to  believe  colonizationists,  the  negro  character  is  to 
be  exhibited  in  all  its  perfection  in  Liberia ;  but  in  America, 
the  black  man  can  never  rise  from  his  present  degradation.  Do 
we  inquire  the  reason,  we  are  promptly  told  that  no  equality 
can  subsist  between  the  white  and  black  races,  and  that  the 
latter  to  be  great  and  happy  must  live  alone.  Strange  it  is,  that 
instead  of  referring  to  St.  Domingo  as  an  apt  illustration  of 
their  theory,  they  are  fond  of  citing  the  present  state  of  that  island 
as  a  warning  against  abolition,  —  as  a  proof  that  free  negroes 
are  too  indolent  to  work,  too  deficient  in  enterprise  to  attain 
national  prosperity.  If  such  be  the  fact  how  faithless  must  be 
their  predictions  of  the  future  glory  of  Liberia.  Let  us  now 
attend  to  the  gloomy  and  disheartening  account  which  the  chair 
man  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  New  York  Colonization 
Society  gives  us  of  St.  Domingo ;  an  account  which,  if  true, 
ought  to  induce  the  Society  to  abandon  their  enterprise. 

"  More  than  thirty  years  have  elapsed  since  slavery  was  abolished 
in  St.  Domingo.  Through  scenes  of  unparalleled  devastation  and 
blood,  the  blacks  expelled  their  white  masters,  and  have  ever  since  lived 
under  a  government  of  their  own.  But  from  the  day  of  their  emanci 
pation  to  the  present,  the  population,  for  the  most  part,  have  been  idle 
and  worthless." 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  179 

"  St.  Domingo  was  the  garden  of  the  new  world  —  the  richest  of  the 
Indies.  But  its  villas  has  gone  to  ruin,  and  its  fields  run  to  waste. 
Thorns  and  briars  have  choked  their  gardens,  and  the  plantations  have 
been  barren  from  idleness.  The  government  has  ever  been  despotic, 
and  of  necessity ;  and  AT  LAST  its  power  has  been  called  forth  for 
the  regulation  of  labor  —  the  labor  of  freemen,  to  prevent  the  island 
from  going  entirely  to  ruin.  The  following  extract  from  a  late  Haytien 
enactment  is  in  point,  and  will  serve  as  a  practical  commentary  upon 
the  mad  schemes  of  our  well-meaning  but  deluded  philanthropists.  We 
have  extracted  the  following  articles,  which  render  the  condition  of  the 
free  blacks  very  little  different  from,  if  not  actually  worse  than  the  con 
dition  of  the  slaves  in  any  part  of  the  United  States."  *  Com.  Advertiser, 
24:th  of  September,  1834. 

Then  follow  extracts  from  the  rural  code  of  Hayti,  from 
which  it  appears,  that  all  persons  without  land  or  occupation  are 
compelled  to  labor,  and  are  liable  to  imprisonment  for  idleness. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  philanthropists,  on  whose  mad 
schemes  this  code  is  supposed  to  be  a  commentary,  are  admitted 
on  the  24th  of  September  to  be  "  Avell-meaning,"  whereas,  on 
the  9th  of  June  preceding,  we  were  assured  by  this  same  gen 
tleman,  that  the  "  design "  of  these  philanthropists  was  "  to 
foment  a  servile  war  in  the  South."  To  convince  us  how  unfit 
negroes  are  for  freedom,  we  are  here  informed  that  thirty  years 
after  slavery  was  abolished  in  St.  Domingo,  the  government  has 
at  last  exerted  its  power  for  the  regulation  of  labor,  to  prevent 
the  island  from  going  entirely  to  ruin.  It  so  happens  that  the  regu 
lation  of  labor,  instead  of  being  an  expedient  resolved  on  at  last  to 
save  the  island  from  ruin,  was  coeval  with  the  act  of  emancipa- 

*  This  last  assertion  is  so  very  extraordinary,  that  we  are  constrained  to 
believe  Mr.  Stone  has  never  read  the  "  enactment "  from  which  he  quotes. 
The  present  rural  code  of  Hayti  was  adopted  in  1826.  It  is  a  document  filling 
about  fifteen  folio  pages,  and  displays  a  strong  desire  to  secure  justice  to 
the  laborers.  By  this  code,  all  "  who  shall  not  be  able  to  show  that  they 
possess  the  means  of  subsistence,  shall  be  bound  to  cultivate  the  earth." 
Such  persons  are  required  to  hire  themselves  as  farm  laborers,  but  they  are 
at  perfect  liberty  to  select  their  employer.  The  parties  enter  into  written 
contracts  for  not  less  than  three,  nor  more  than  nine  years.  The  compen 
sation  to  the  laborers  on  a  farm,  varies  according  to  the  terms  of  the  contract, 
from  one-fourth  to  one-half  of  the  whole  produce  of  the  farm.  All  disputes 
between  the  employer  and  his  people  are  settled  by  a  justice  of  the  peace. 
The  employer  can  no  more  flog  or  otherwise  punish  his  "  cultivators,"  than 
an  American  farmer  can  his  hired  laborers.  Not  even  for  crimes  is  corporal 
punishment  allowed  in  Hayti.  The  cultivator  has,  by  law,  the  whole  of 
Saturday  and  Sunday  to  himself,  and  on  other  days  he  cannot  be  required 
to  work  after  sunset.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent  him  from  accumulating 
property  by  industry  and  economy,  buying  a  farm  and  hiring  laborers  in  his 
turn. 


180  JAY'S  WORKS. 

tion.  On  the  28th  of  February,  1794,  Etienne  Polverel,  "  civil 
commissary  of  the  Republic,  delegated  to  the  French  Leeward 
islands  in  America,  for  the  purpose  of  reestablishing  the  public 
order  and  tranquillity,"  published  in  the  name  of  the  French 
people  a  rural  code  for  the  government  of  the  liberated  slaves 
in  St.  Domingo.  It  is  long,  and  descends  to  minute  particulars  ; 
a  brief  extract  will  show  that  it  regulated  labor. 

"  The  ordinary  day's  labor  is  limited  to  about  nine  hours,  viz. :  from 
sunrise  to  half-past  eight  —  from  half-past  nine  to  twelve  —  and  from 
two  to  sunset ;  and  in  crop  time,  it  shall  be  extended  to  eight  o'clock 
in  the  evening.  The  laborers  shall  be  bound  to  obey  the  overseers, 
and  the  overseers  to  obey  each  other,  according  to  their  rank  ;  but  their 
authority  shall  be  confined  to  the  cultivation  and  good  order  of  the 
plantation.  Those  laborers  who  in  these  points  shall  refuse  to  obey  the 
order  of  the  overseers,  shall  be  subject  to  a  month's  imprisonment,  with 
labor  during  the  day  on  public  works"  &c.,  &c. 

This  code  continued  in  force  till  August,  1798,  when  it  was 
somewhat  modified  by  Toussaint,  and  we  have  already  seen,  on 
the  authority  of  the  history  of  St.  Domingo,  that  "  the  planters 
were  obliged  to  employ  their  laborers  on  the  footing  of  hired 
servants,  and  the  negroes  were  required  to  labor  for  their  liveli 
hood."  Hence  it  appears  that  the  regulation  of  labor  in  St. 
Domingo  is  not,  as  Mr.  Stone  seems  to  suppose,  a  recent  exer 
tion  of  power  on  the  part  of  the  government. 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  ruined  villas,  the  barren  plan 
tations,  the  gardens  choked  with  thorns  ?  Admitting  Mr. 
Stone's  melancholy  picture  to  be  correct,  cannot  we  explain  it 
on  other. principles  than  such  as  would  be  fatal  to  the  freedom 
and  happiness  of  millions  ?  The  zealous  editor  seems  wholly 
to  have  forgotten  the  terrible  war  which  the  Haytiens  were  com 
pelled  to  wage  in  defence  of  their  liberty.  In  1802,  a  French 
army  landed  in  St.  Domingo,  for  the  purpose  of  again  reducing 
its  inhabitants  to  slavery,  and  a  war  ensued,  which,  for  its  deso 
lating  fury,  is  probably  without  a  parallel.  A  historian  of  this 
war,  thus  concludes  his  account  of  it : 

"At  length,  in  the  month  of  December,  1803,  the  island  was  finally 
abandoned,  a  mere  handful  of  the  French  troops  escaping  the  destruc 
tion  which  had  already  overtaken  60,000  of  their  fellows  !  Thus  for 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  181 

nearly  two  years,  with  a  very  brief  interval,  had  a  war  raged  in  St. 
Domingo,  singularly  ferocious  and  vindictive  in  its  character,  and 
directed  latterly  more  to  extermination  than  to  conquest,  sparing  neither 
sex  nor  age,  and  sweeping  away  from  the  whole  face  of  the  plains  of 
that  beautiful  island  eoery  trace  of  cultivation.  So  complete  was  the 
extinction  of  all  sugar  culture  in  particular,  that  for  a  time  not  an 
ounce  of  that  article  was  procurable.  The  very  roots  and  fruits  on 
which  subsistence  depended,  were  cultivated  only  in  mornes.  Desola 
tion,  therefore,  could  hardly  be  conceived  more  complete,  than  pre 
vailed  in  1804  and  1805  over  all  those  parts  of  the  colony  which  had 
formerly  been  covered  with  plantations  ;  and  it  is  well  known  how  soon 
the  rank  vegetation  of  a  tropical  climate  converts  the  neglected  plan 
tation  into  jungle." 

And  is  it  a  proof  that  slaves  ought  never  to  be  emancipated 
that  St.  Domingo  has  not  in  thirty  years,  after  such  wide-spread 
desolation,  become  again  in  the  hands  of  men  recently  delivered 
from  bondage,  and  for  the  most  part,  poor  and  ignorant,  "  the 
garden  of  the  new  world  ?  "  And  was,  indeed,  that  an  "  idle 
and  worthless  "  population  which  successfully  resisted  the  arms 
of  England  and  of  France,  and  achieved  their  freedom  by  a 
heroic  sacrifice  of  their  lives  and  property  —  a  sacrifice  which, 
had  their  complexion  been  white,  would  have  been  celebrated 
by  poets  and  orators  in  every  portion  of  the  civilized  world  ? 

Let  us  now  inquire,  whether  the  present  state  of  the  island  is 
in  truth  such  as  is  alleged. 

The  Rev.  Simon  Clough,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  has  lately  published 
a  pamphlet,  ("  Appeal  to  the  Citizens  of  the  United  States  ") 
in  which  he  undertakes  to  justify  slavery  from  the  Scriptures, 
and  to  prove  that  all  clergymen  who  advocate  immediate  aboli 
tion,  are  "  false  teachers,"  and  ought  to  be  dismissed  by  their 
congregations.  Now  this  most  veracious  teacher,  speaking  of 
St.  Domingo,  assures  us,  p.  16:  "At  the  present  time,*  there  is 
not  ONE  sugar,  coffee,  or  cotton  plantation  on  the  island.  There 
is  now  exported  about  five  million  pounds  of  inferior  coffee,  which 
grows  wild,  and  is  picked  up  by  the  inhabitants  off  the  ground^ 
where  it  falls  after  it  becomes  ripe." 

Strange  it  is,  that  this  island,  if  in  the  state  described  by 
Messrs.  Stone  and  Clough,  should  support  a  population  of 

*Thc  pamphlet  was  published  in  New  York,  1834. 

16* 


182  JAY'S  WORKS. 

935,050.*  Still  more  strange  is  it,  that  when  the  whole  export 
of  coffee  is  only  about  five  million  pounds,  it  should  appear  from 
the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  that  the  coffee 
exported  in  1833,  from  Hayti  to  the  United  States  alone,  amount 
ed  to  eleven  million,  seven  hundred  eighty-four  thousand,  eight 
hundred  and  thirty-five  pounds.  Most  passing  strange  is  it,  that 
the  imports  into  this  country,  in  the  same  year,  from  an  island 
in  which  there  is  not  ONE  sugar,  coffee,  or  cotton  plantation ; 
with  an  idle  and  worthless  population ;  with  its  fields  run  to 
waste,  and  its  plantations  barren  from  idleness,  should  neverthe 
less  exceed  in  value  our  imports  in  the  same  period,  from  either 
Prussia  —  Sweden  and  Norway  —  Denmark,  and  the  Danish 
West  Indies  —  Ireland  and  Scotland  —  Holland  —  Belgium  — 
Dutch  East  Indies  —  British  West  Indies  —  Spain  —  Portugal 
—  all  Italy  —  Turkey  and  the  Levant  —  or  any  one  republic  in 
South  America !  f 

Neither  Mr.  Stone  nor  Dr.  Clough  professes  to  speak  from 
personal  observation.  Let  us  then  listen  to  an  eye-witness.  In 
1831,  was  published  in  a  London  periodical,  the  journal  of  a 
traveller  in  Hayti.  The  following  are  extracts  : 

"  Port  au  Prince,  Island  of  Hayti,  June  25,  1830. 

"  Being  aware  that  this  city  had  very  recently  suffered  greatly  by 
fire,  I  expected  to  see  an  unsightly  waste  of  ruin  and  decay ;  but  the 
lots  are  rebuilt,  and  many  a  splendid  and  substantial  edifice,  surpassing 
those  to  be  seen  in  the  city  of  Kingston  in  Jamaica,  has  arisen  as  the 
first  fruits  of  the  security  which  property  enjoys,  by  the  recognized 
independence  of  Hayti. 

"  I  have  made  an  excursion  or  two,  just  out  of  the  town,  to  the  little 
cottage  settlements  on  the  side  of  the  mountain  above  the  city.  I  am 
told,  that  in  the  ancient  regime,  (that  is  the  phrase  here  for  the  old 
state  of  things,)  the  plains  were  a  source  of  so  abundant  a  return  for 
the  industry  of  the  proprietor,  that  the  mountains  in  this  neighborhood 
were  comparatively  neglected,  so  that  the  '  Camp  des  Fourmis,'  the 
range  of  hills  so  called,  extending  from  Point  Lamentine  to  the  Cul  de 
Sac,  were  heretofore  never  cultivated  as  they  are  now.  At  present 
they  are  covered  with  a  thousand  small  settlements  appropriated  to  coffee, 
and  provisions,  and  fruits,  and  vegetables,  in  which  the  advantages  of 
irrigation,  presented  by  the  frequent  springs,  bursting  from  the  moun- 

*  Census  of  1824. 

fSee  documents  accompanying  Letters  from  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to 
the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  21st  April,  1834. 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  183 

tain  ravines,  have  been  diligently  attended  to  in  the  agricultural  econ 
omy.  The  water  is  trenched  over  the  sunny  surface  of  each  projecting 
irregularity  of  the  ridge ;  and  height  above  height,  the  cottage  of  the 
humble  cultivator  is  seen ;  or  the  substantial  country-seat  of  the  Hay- 
tien  merchant,  with  its  baths,  bowers,  and  terraced  gardens,  has  been 
erected. 

"  Port  au  Prince,  though  by  no  means  a  handsome  town,  is  at  this 
day,  in  style,  and  one  may  say  splendor,  far  superior  to  what  it  was  in 
the  colonial  period  of  its  history. 

"  The  frequent  calamities  to  which  it  had  been  subjected  from  fire, 
and  the  immense  and  valuable  property  lost  by  earthquakes  in  the 
years  1820  and  1822,  have  led  the  Haytiens  to  attempt  providing 
against  the  two-fold  liability,  as  they  expressed  it,  of  being  bouleverse 
et  incendie.  They  have  commenced  reerecting  some  of  the  houses 
destroyed  by  these  conflagrations,  with  stone  or  brick,  cased  over 
wooden  frames,  at  once  to  sustain  the  shock  of  the  earthquake,  and  to 
repel  the  action  of  the  fire.  They  cover  the  roofs  with  tiles  or  slates, 
rather  than  shingles ;  and  erect  their  stores  for  merchandise  with  fire 
proof  terraces,  and  wrought-iron  doors  and  windows.  These  buildings 
have  galleries  and  arched  colonnades,  with  heavy  cornices  and  balus 
trades  screening  the  roof;  and  floors  of  variegated  marble,  and  tiles  in 
the  upper  as  well  as  lower  stories.  If  continued  generally,  they  will 
render  this  city  not  only  one  of  the  most  elegant  in  the  West  Indies, 
but  one  in  which  the  houses  will  exhibit  an  interior  economy,  the  very 
best  adapted  to  the  necessities  of  the  climate.  The  decorations  are 
appropriate.  The  rich,  varied  mahogany  of  the  country  is  manufac 
tured  into  elegant  furniture  by  the  artisans  here ;  and  the  French  taste 
of  gilded  mirrors,  or  Molu  clocks,  and  porcelain  vases,  filled  with  arti 
ficial  flowers,  impart  to  the  dwellings  of  the  simple  Haytiens  an  air  of 
refinement  not  unworthy  of  Europe. 

"  The  scene  presented  to  the  view  of  the  traveller  who  quits  the  city 
of  Port  au  Prince,  to  journey  on  the  highway  to  the  mountains,  through 
a  wild  waste,  is  not  a  solitary  one.  On  the  road  he  will  meet  a  multi 
tude  of  cultivators  coming  to  the  city  market,  with  horses  and  asses 
loaded  with  provisions.  He  will  see  wagons  with  produce  drawn  by 
hardy  and  healthy  cattle.  If  he  departs  from  the  high  road,  and  turns 
to  the  right  hand  through  one  of  the  woodland  paths,  he  will  find  him 
self  entering  into  open  grounds,  covered  with  verdant  fields  ;  he  will 
see  traces  every  where  visible  of  renewed  cultivation ;  mansions  re- 
erected  ;  aqueducts  reconducting  their  streams  to  irrigate  the  land  ;  the 
sound  of  water-mills  at  work ;  cottages  no  longer  deserted,  but  tenanted 
by  laborers  once  more  issuing  from  them  to  gather  in  the  harvest  of 
the  teeming  soil. 

"  The  island  of  Jamaica  does  not  exhibit  a  plantation  better  estab 
lished  than  Chateau  Blond  ;  whether  we  consider  the  resources  of  the 
land,  or  the  mechanical  economy  by  which  those  resources  are  com 
manded,  it  is  a  splendid  establishment. 

"  To  me  who  have  had  an  opportunity  from  the  day  of  my  birth,  and 
long  residence  in  a  slave  colony,  of  forming  by  comparison  a  correct 
estimate  of  this  people's  advancement,  the  general  quiet  conduct  and 
respectful  behavior  of  all  classes  here,  publicly  and  privately,  is  a 
matter  exciting  great  surprise." 


184  JAY'S  WORKS. 

All  this,  it  may  be  said,  is  anonymous  testimony.  It  is  so, 
and  yet  it  seems  entitled  to  at  least  as  much  weight  as  the  bare, 
naked  assertions  of  Messrs.  Stone  and  Clough.  We  will  now 
offer  testimony  to  which  we  presume  no  objection  will  be  made. 
The  following  are  extracts  from  "  the  report  of  the  select  com 
mittee  on  the  extinction  of  slavery  throughout  the  British  Do 
minions,  with  minutes  of  evidence,  ordered  by  the  House  of 
Commons  to  be  printed,  llth  August,  1832." 

Evidence  of  Mr.  Robert  Sutherland. 

"  Are  there  many  persons  who  work  for  hire  in  Hayti  ? 

"  Yes,  the  whole  cultivation  is  carried  on  by  free  labor. 

"  Do  these  persons  work  with  industry  and  vigor  ? 

"I  have  no  reason  to  think  they  do  not.  The  proof  that  free  labor 
in  Hayti  answers,  is  this :  that  after  the  French  were  expelled,  there  was 
absolutely  no  sugar  work  ;  there  was  no  mill ;  there  was  nothing  of  that 
kind  which  could  be  put  in  use ;  it  was  destroyed ;  and  since  that 
period,  various  plantations  have  grown  «ip  in  Hayti.  Men  have  gone 
to  the  expense  of  thirty  and  forty  thousand  dollars,  to  build  up  those 
sugar  works ;  and  it  stands  to  reason,  that  unless  these  men  were  repaid 
for  their  capital  they  would  not  continue  that  sort  of  work.  And  there 
is  another  thing  to  be  observed,  that  sugar  is  not  the  staple  commodity 
of  Hayti ;  they  only  make  sufficient  for  their  own  consumption.  Cof 
fee  is  the  staple  commodity  of  the  island. 

"  If  a  man  can  show  that  he  has  the  means  of  subsistence  of  his  own, 
is  he  compelled  to  labor  under  the  code  rurale  ? 

"  Decidedly  not. 

"  Do  you  believe  that  corporal  punishment  is  inflicted  upon  any  of 
the  laborers  in  Hayti  ? 

"  I  believe  it  is  impossible.  I  have  seen  the  peasantry  in  the  High 
lands  of  Scotland  where  I  was  brought  up,  and  I  declare  that  the  ne 
groes  in  St.  Domingo  are  comparatively  as  much  superior  to  them  in 
comfort  as  it  is  possible  for  one  man  to  be  over  another." 

Evidence  of  the  Vice  Admiral,  the  Hon.  Charles  Fleming,  member  of 
Parliament. 

"  Was  told  that  vagrants  and  deserters  worked  by  compulsion,  but 
he  did  not  see  any  himself.  Had  never  heard  of  any  working  under 
the  lash.  The  lash  was  prohibited  by  laiv.  The  Haytiens  appeared  to 
hun  the  happiest,  best  fed,  and  most  comfortable  negroes  he  had  ever 
seen ;  better  oif  even  than  in  the  Caraccas  :  infinitely  better  than  in 
Jamaica  ;  there  was  no  comparison  between  them.  He  could  not  speak 
positively  of  the  increase  of  the  Haytien  population  since  1804,  but 
believed  it  had  trebled  since  that  time.  They  now  feed  themselves,  and 
they  export  provisions,  which  neither  the  French  nor  the  Spaniards 
had  ever  done  before. 

"  He  saw  a  sugar  estate  near  Cape  Haytien,  General  Boulon's,  ex 
tremely  well  cultivated,  and  in  beautiful  order.  It  was  wrought  by 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  185 

blacks,  all  free.  A  new  plantation  was  forming  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  road.  Their  victuals  were  very  superior  to  those  in  Jamaica,  con 
sisting  chiefly  of  meat,  cattle  being  very  cheap.  The  highest  contract 
beef  in  Hayti,  was  2d. ;  in  Jamaica,  it  was  1 2d.  He  saw  no  marks  of 
destitution  any  where.  The  country  seemed  improving,  and  trade  in 
creasing.  The  estate  he  visited  near  the  Cape  was  large ;  it  was  cal 
culated  to  make  300  hogsheads  of  sugar.  It  was  beautifully  laid  out, 
and  as  well  managed  as  any  estate  he  had  seen  in  the  West  Indies. 
His  official  correspondence  as  Admiral  with  the  Haytien  government, 
made  him  attribute  much  efficiency  to  it,  and  it  bore  strong  marks  of 
civilization.  There  was  a  better  police  in  Hayti,  than  in  the  new- 
South  American  States ;  the  communication  was  more  rapid  ;  the  roads 
much  better.  One  had  been  cut  from  Port  au  Prince  to  Cape  Haytien, 
that  would  do  honor  to  any  country.  A  regular  post  was  established. 
The  government  is  one  quite  worthy  of  a  civilized  people.  The  negroes 
of  Hayti  are  certainly  richer,  and  happier,  and  in  a  better  condition 
than  he  had  ever  seen  elsewhere.  They  were  all  working  in  the  fields 
when  he  was  there.  He  rode  about  very  much.  He  did  not  think 
any  acts  of  oppression  were  practised  on  the  people  of  Hayti  by  the 
government." 

Mr.  Jeremie,  late  first  president  of  the  royal  court  of  St.  Lu 
cia,  informs  us  that  in  St.  Domingo 

"  Is  found  a  happy,  flourishing,  and  contented  peasantry,  engaged  in 
the  cultivation  of  their  own  small  freeholds ;  and  as  these  persons 
acquire  capital,  they  form  larger  establishments,  and  are  gradually 
rising.  This  proves  that  the  general  wants  of  the  community  are  sup 
plied,  and,  if  well  governed,  that  community  must  soon  acquire  strength 
and  rise  to  importance."  Essays  on  Colonial  Slavery,  1832,  p.  63. 

The  following  facts,  collected  from  the  new  and  valuable  "  Dic 
tionary  of  Commerce  and  Commercial  Navigation,"  by  J.  R. 
McCulloch,  London  edition,  1834,  abundantly  confirm  the  fore 
going  testimonies. 

In  178G,  the  exportation  of  coffee  was  about  35,000  tons.  In  conse 
quence  of  the  subsequent  devastation  of  the  island,  the  exportation 
for  some  years  almost  totally  ceased ;  but  it  has  now  risen  to  about 
20,000  tons  !  p.  309. 

The  amount  of  the  following  articles,  exported  in  1832,  was  esti 
mated  as  follows,  viz. : 

Coffee, 50,000,000  Ibs, 

Cotton, 1,500,000  Ibs. 

Tobacco, 500,000  Ibs. 

Cocoa, 500,000  Ibs. 

Dye  wood, 5,000,000  Ibs. 

Tortoise  shell, 12,000  Ibs. 

Mahogany, 6,000,000  feet 

Hides, 80,000— p.  927. 


186  JOY'S  WORKS. 

The  quantity  of  sugar  exported  in  1832,  is  not  stated  ;  but  in  1826, 
it  amounted  to  32,864  Ibs. ;  and  it  should  be  recollected,  that  about 
twenty  years  before,  not  an  ounce  of  that  article  was  manufactured  on 
the  island,  p.  926. 

The  imports  into  France,  in  1831,  from  Hayti,  exceeded  in  value 
the  imports  from  Sweden  —  Denmark,  the  Hanseatic  Towns  —  Hol 
land  —  Portugal  —  Austria  —  the  French  East  Indies  —  or  China, 
p.  637. 

In  the  same  year,  the  importation  of  French  wines  into  Hayti 
amounted  to  108,495  gallons,  p.  1250.* 

Cotton  manufactures,  to  the  amount  of  6,828,576  yards,  were  ex 
ported  from  Great  Britain  to  Hayti  in  1831,  being  about  one-tenth  the 
number  of  yards  exported  the  same  year  to  the  United  States,  p.  446. 

Our  readers  are  now  competent  to  judge  for  themselves  how 
far  the  assertions  of  Mr.  Stone  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Clough  are 
consistent  with  truth  ;  and  also  what  is  "  the  practical  commen 
tary  "  offered  by  the  history  and  present  state  of  St.  Domingo, 
on  "the  mad  schemes  of  our  well-meaning  but  deluded 
philanthropists." 

•'  y 


CHAPTER    IX. 


EMANCIPATION    IN    THE    BRITISH    WEST    INDIES. 

THE  British  Government,  in  part  to  conciliate  the  West  In 
dia  proprietors,  and  in  part  through  apprehension  of  the  danger 
of  immediate  emancipation,  determined  to  abolish  slavery  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  Jit  the  slave  for  freedom.  Instead  of  breaking 
his  yoke,  it  was  to  be  reduced  in  weight ;  and  six  years  were  to  be 
occupied  in  filing  off  his  manacles.  On  the  first  of  last  August, 
the  slave  was  told  and  believed,  that  slavery  was  abolished ;  but 
on  the  morrow,  he  was  summoned  to  his  usual  task,  and  required 
to  work  as  before,  without  reward.  Astonished  and  disap- 

*  The  quantity  of  French  wine  imported  the  same  year  into  Great  Britain 
for  home  consumption,  was  254,366  gallons,  p.  1255. 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  187 

pointed,  he  doubted  the  legality  of  the  mandate,  and  hesitated 
to  obey  it.  He  was  then  informed,  that,  although  no  longer  a 
slave,  he  was  nevertheless  an  apprentice,  and  must  toil  on  for 
six  years  longer,  before  he  could  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  labor. 
Had  emancipation  been  nominally,  as  well  as  really,  prospective, 
the  slave  would  have  regarded  it  as  a  boon  ;  but  he  did  not 
readily  comprehend  the  distinction  between  slavery  and  appren 
ticeship. 

There  was,  however,  a  very  important  distinction,  which  he 
soon  discovered,  and  which  did  not  promote  his  acquiescence  in 
protracted  wrong.  The  lash  was,  by  act  of  Parliament,  wrested 
from  the  master's  hand ;  and  while  he  was  authorized  to  com 
mand  his  apprentices  to  labor,  he  was  forbidden  to  punish  them 
for  idleness  or  insubordination.  On  this  subject  a  Jamaica  paper 
remarks  : 

"  It  is  clear,  and  there  is  no  use  in  disguising  the  fact,  that  the  ap 
prentices  can  no  longer  be  coerced  in  the  way  they  formerly  were ;  for 
in  the  first  place,  no  magistrate  can  legally  inflict  more  than  twenty- 
nine  stripes,  and,  in  the  next,  it  is  not  possible  to  furnish  magistrates 
enough  for  the  purpose.  The  hope,  therefore,  of  coercing,  is  absurd, 
and  must  be  abandoned." 

The  conduct  of  the  West  India  negroes,  under  these  circum 
stances,  proves  how  utterly  groundless  are  the  apprehensions 
entertained  of  emancipation.  Disappointed  and  irritated,  and 
at  the  same  time  almost  wrholly  released  from  the  control  of  their 
masters,  they  have  exhibited  a  meekness,  patience,  and  forbear 
ance,  utterly  without  a  parallel.  The  great  mass  of  the  appren 
tices  continue  to  labor,  but  some  have  either  refused  to  work,  or 
accomplish  less  than  their  appointed  tasks.  None  of  the  insur 
rections,  murders  and  conflagrations,  which  were  so  confidently 
predicted  by  the  enemies  of  abolition,  have  occurred.  Not  one 
life  has  yet  been  taken,  not  one  dwelling  fired,*  throughout  the 
British  West  Indies,  by  the  emancipated  slaves. 

This  forbearance  is  the  more  remarkable,  when  we  consider 
the  numerical  superiority  of  the  negroes,  in  the  West  Indies, 

*  Two  sheds,  called  trash  houses,  were  lately  burned  in  Jamaica,  probably, 
but  not  certainly,  by  an  apprentice. 


188  JAY'S  WORKS. 

and  particularly  in  Jamaica,  where  there  are  331,000  slaves, 
and  only  37,000  whites. 

Whatever  may  be  the  result  of  the  apprenticeship  experi 
ment,  abolitionists  are  not  responsible  for  it.  It  was  adopted 
contrary  to  their  advice,  and  is  inconsistent  with  the  doctrines 
they  profess.  The  emancipation  which  they  believe  to  be  most 
consonant  with  the  will  of  God,  most  conducive  to  the  safety 
and  happiness  of  the  whites,  is  immediate  and  unconditional. 
They  rejoice  that  their  doctrines  are  at  this  moment  subjected 
to  a  severe  and  practical  test,  and  they  await  the  issue  with  un 
shaken  confidence. 

The  Legislatures  of  Bermuda  and  Antigua,  have  adopted  the 
very  course  which  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  recom 
mends  to  the  slave  States.  "With  the  permission  of  the  British 
government,  these  Legislatures  dispensed  with  the  apprentice 
ship  altogether,  and  on  the  first  of  last  August,  granted  imme 
diate  and  unqualified  emancipation.  That  we  may  judge  of  the 
fanaticism,  the  madness,  the  reckless  incendiarism  of  these 
Legislatures,  we  must  take  into  consideration  the  number  of 
slaves  they  "  let  loose  upon  the  community,"  and  their  relative 
proportion  to  the  white  population. 

In  Bermuda  there  are  5,500  whites,  4,650  slaves,  and  500 
free  blacks.  In  Antigua,  2,000  whites,  30,000  slaves,  and  4,500 
free  blacks.* 

The  Bermuda  Gazette,  of  the  4th  of  August,  thus  speaks  of 
the  great  change  effected  on  the  1st. 

"  The  day  was  as  remarkable  for  quietude,  exemption  from  labor, 
and  solemnity,  as  that  which  marks  the  Sabbath  in  a  Christian  land. 
The  only  bustle  perceptible  was  in  preparation  for  attending  public 
worship,  which  his  Excellency  the  Governor  most  wisely  ordered  to  be 
performed :  thereby  dedicating  it  wholly  to  God,  the  wilier  and  doer 
of  this  great  work.  The  churches  and  other  places  of  public  worship 
on  the  island  were  crowded  to  excess,  every  possible  accommodation 
being  afforded  to  the  colored  people.  From  every  quarter  wre  hear  of 
their  orderly,  nay  more,  exemplary  behavior.  Four  days  of  univer 
sal  freedom  have  now  passed,  and  four  days  of  more  perfect  regularity 
and  quiet  have  these  famed  peaceful  islands  never  witnessed." 

*  American  Almanac. 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  189 

Such  was  the  immediate  result  of  turning  loose  4,000  slaves. 
Let  us  now  attend  to  the  subsequent  testimony.  The  Hon.  Mr. 
Butterfield,  Chief  Justice  of  Bermuda,  in  his  charge  to  the  grand 
jury  on  the  Gth  of  November,  referring  to  the  abolition  of  slaves 
in  the  island,  observed  : 

"  This  measure,  which  was  necessarily  one  of  fearful  experiment, 
has  not,  I  am  happy  to  say,  disappointed  the  hopes  of  the  public,  whose 
feelings  in  its  favor  were  expressed  with  a  unanimity  as  unexampled 
as,  I  am  proud  to  say,  altogether  honorable  to  the  character  of  the 
country.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  subject  of  congratulation,  and  cer 
tainly  of  commendation  to  the  emancipated,  that  in  three  months  during 
which  we  have  been  able  to  mark  its  working,  the  general  character 
and  comfort  of  society  have  improved,  and  the  evils  which  some  of  its 
best  friends  apprehended,  were  in  all  cases  overrated,  and  in  some 
have  hitherto  had  no  existence." 

But  in  Bermuda  the  whites  were  equal  to  the  blacks,  and  the 
manumitted  slaves  were  perhaps  restrained  from  outrage  by  the 
consciousness  of  their  own  weakness.  It  seems  as  if  Provi 
dence  had  provided  facts  to  refute  every  argument  that  can  be 
urged  against  abolition.  Let  us  now  turn  to  Antigua,  where  the 
slaves  were  to  the  whites  as  15  to  1,  and  the  free  blacks  as  3  to 
2,  and  see  how  far  in  this  overwhelming  preponderance  of  the 
colored  over  the  white  population,  immediate  emancipation  con 
firmed  Dr.  Hawkes's  theory.  Let  the  Antigua  newspaper  of 
7th  of  August,  answer. 

"  The  great  doubt  is  solved,  the  alarming  prognostications  of  the  ad 
vocates  of  slavery  are  falsified,  the  highest  hopes  of  the  negroes'  friends 
fulfilled,  and  their  pledge  honorably  redeemed.  A  whole  people,  com 
prising  thirty  thousand  souls,  have  passed  from  slavery  into  freedom, 
not  only  without  the  slightest  irregularity,  but  with  the  solemn  and 
decorous  tranquillity  of  a  Sabbath.  A  week  has  nearly  elapsed,  and 
although  all  eyes  and  ears  are  open,  and  reports  spread  rapidly,  we 
have  not  heard  of  a  single  act  of  insolence,  insubordination  or  violence 
committed  by  any  one  of  them,  under  false  and  licentious  notions  of 
freedom." 

From  the  same  paper,  of  the  14th  of  August: 

"  It  is  with  the  highest  satisfaction  we  announce,  that  we  know  of 
and  believe  that  there  is  no  gang  of  laborers  in  the  island,  which  lias 
not  returned  to  its  accustomed  employment" 

17 


190  JAY'S  WORKS. 

So  that  two  weeks  after  the  slaves  were  "  let  loose,"  instead 
of  begging  and  stealing,  they  were  all  quietly  at  work. 
We  quote  from  the  same  paper  of  the  21st  of  August : 

"  The  third  week  of  freedom  will  close  with  this  day,  and  again  we 
are  bound  to  express  our  gratitude  and  praise  to  the  Divine  goodness, 
for  the  perfect  peace  and  tranquillity  which  the  island  enjoys.  Not 
the  least  symptom  of  insubordination  has  manifested  itself  any  where  ; 
and  the  daily  accounts  from  all  quarters  testify  to  the  excellent  disposi 
tion  and  conduct  of  the  new  freemen." 

In  a  letter  from  Antigua,  dated  August  30th,  and  published 
in  a  Norfolk  paper,  we  find  the  following : 

"  The  operations  of  commerce  have  experienced  no  interruption ; 
public  confidence  remains  unshaken.  Two  sugar  plantations  have 
recently  leased  for  as  much  as  they  were  worth  with  the  negroes  included, 
prior  to  emancipation" 

While  the  Jamaica  papers  are  filled  with  complaints  of  the 
conduct  of  the  apprentices,  and  predictions  of  the  ruin  of  the 
island,  one  of  them  (10th  September)  says: 

"  In  Antigua,  all  appears  to  be  peaceable  and  quiet.  Its  rulers 
evinced  more  wisdom,  and  proved  themselves  to  be  better  tacticians, 
than  those  of  any  other  colonies,  Bermuda  exccpted.  In  getting  rid 
of  the  apprenticeship,  they  got  rid  of  the  source,  and  only  source  of 
heartburning  between  them  and  their  laborers ;  and  we  maintain,  as  a 
free  colony,  will  soon  experience  advantages  not  to  be  enjoyed  by 
others,  so  long  at  least  as  the  humbug  continues." 

About  eight  months  have  now  elapsed  since  the  thirty  thou 
sand  slaves  of  Antigua  were  suddenly  "  let  loose,"  and,  as  yet, 
we  have  not  heard  of  a  single  outrage  committed  by  them.  It 
had  been  customary  in  this  island,  as  an  additional  security 
against  insurrection,  to  proclaim  martial  law  at  the  Christmas 
holidays,  during  which  times  the  slaves  had  peculiar  oppor 
tunities  for  forming  conspiracies.  The  great  act  of  justice  ac 
complished  on  the  first  of  August,  relieved  the  planters  of  all 
apprehension  of  insurrection ;  and  not  only  was  the  usual 
proclamation  withheld  at  the  last  Christmas,  but  the  militia  was 
exempted  from  duty.  In  a  late  speech  by  the  Speaker  of  the 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  191 

Antigua  House  of  Assembly,  he  adverted  to  the  "universal 
tranquillity  "  that  prevailed,  and  to  the  "  respectful  demeanor  of 
the  lower  classes ; "  and  declared  that  "  the  agricultural  and 
commercial  prosperity  of  the  colony  was  absolutely  on  the 

ADVANCE." 


CHAPTER    X. 

GRADUAL  AND  IMMEDIATE  EMANCIPATION. 

IF  we  have  been  successful  in  our  endeavors  to  prove  that 
the  removal  of  slavery  by  colonization  is  both  morally  and 
physically  impossible,  then  it  necessarily  follows,  that  the  slaves 
must  be  emancipated  here,  or  that  slavery  must  be  indefinitely 
continued. 

Should  the  former  alternative  be  adopted,  the  important 
question  occurs,  —  Ought  the  emancipation  to  be  gradual  or 
immediate  ? 

If  this  question  is  to  be  determined  with  reference  to  moral 
obligation,  it  is  certainly  difficult  for  those  who  regard  slavery 
as  sinful  to  justify  its  continuance  even  for  a  limited  time.  If, 
however,  the  question  is  to  be  decided  on  the  ground  of  mere 
political  expediency,  there  are  many  and  powerful  objections  to 
gradual  emancipation  ;  and  what  may  at  first  view  appear  para 
doxical,  the  strength  of  these  objections  is  proportioned  to  the 
number  of  slaves  to  be  emancipated. 

In  New  York,  slavery  was  for  the  most  part  gradually  abol 
ished  ;  that  is,  the  children  born  after  a  certain  day  became  free 
as  they  respectively  reached  the  age  of  twenty-eight  years ;  and 
when  the  whole  number  of  slaves  was  reduced  to  ten  thousand, 
they  were  liberated  in  a  single  day.  In  New  York,  the  white 
population  so  greatly  exceeded  the  black,  that  no  jealousy  was 
entertained  of  the  free  negroes,  and  no  inconvenience  experi 
enced  in  uniting  free  and  slave  labor.  But  in  those  States  in 


192 

which  nearly  all  the  laborers  are  slaves,  where  every  free  black 
is  regarded  as  a  nuisance  and  an  incendiary,  and  where  the 
planter  would,  on  no  consideration,  permit  him  to  labor  in  com 
pany  with  his  slaves,  much  difficulty  would  necessarily  attend 
a  gradual  relinquishment  of  slave  labor. 

Suppose,  in  South  Carolina  for  instance,  ten  thousand  slaves 
should  be  annually  manumitted  by  law.  This  would  certainly 
be  gradual  emancipation,  as  it  would  require  about  forty  years 
to  free  the  whole  number.  Now,  what  would  become  of  these 
ten  thousand  yearly  discharged  from  the  plantations  ?  Would 
their  late  masters  be  willing  to  hire  them,  and  turn  them  back 
into  their  cotton  fields  ?  The  supposition  is  extravagant.  The 
planter  would  dread  their  influence  on  his  remaining  slaves,  and 
these  would  certainly,  and  with  great  reason,  be  dissatisfied  at 
seeing  their  late  companions  working  for  wages,  while  they 
themselves  were  denied  any  compensation  for  their  toil.  But  if 
the  ten  thousand  liberated  slaves  were  not  employed,  how  could 
they  obtain  a  livelihood,  and  how  could  the  planters  supply  their 
place  on  the  plantations  ?  The  idea  that  by  gradual  emancipa 
tion  the  slaves  will  become  fit  for  freedom,  is  visionary  in  the 
extreme.  How  is  it  possible  that  the  liberation  of  a  portion  of 
the  slaves,  can  qualify  those  who  remain  in  chains  to  become 
useful  citizens  ?  The  house  of  bondage  is  not  the  school  in 
which  men  are  to  be  trained  for  liberty. 

As  then  gradual  emancipation,  however  desirable,  if  no  other 
can  be  obtained,  is  so  full  of  difficulty,  and,  in  the  opinion  of 
slave-holders,  so  dangerous  that  they  have  almost  universally 
passed  laws  to  prevent  it,  the  only  alternative  is  immediate 
emancipation  or  continued  slavery. 

It  seems  scarcely  possible  that  any  conscientious  man,  after 
considering  the  results  of  immediate  emancipation  in  St.  Do 
mingo  and  Guadaloupe,  in  New  York,  in  Mexico,  in  South 
America,  and  in  the  West  Indies,  should  join  in  the  popular 
clamor  against  it,  as  necessarily  leading  to  massacre  and  rapine. 
No  reason  can  be  assigned  why  the  whites  would  not  possess 
the  same  physical  power  to  prevent  or  suppress  outrage  after, 
as  before  emancipation  ;  but  abundant  reason  may  be  given, 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  193 

why  the  blacks,  when  restored  to  their  rights,  and  enjoying  the 
protection  and  privileges  of  civil  society,  should  be  less  disposed 
to  destroy  their  benefactors  and  deliverers,  than  they  are  when 
smarting  under  cruelty  and  injustice,  to  destroy  those  whom 
they  regard  as  their  tyrants  and  oppressors. 

Who,  with  the  knowledge  that  no  white  man  has  ever  been 
murdered  in  consequence  of  immediate  emancipation,  dares  to 
declare  in  the  presence  of  his  Maker,  that  self-preservation 
forbids  the  abolition  of  slavery  ? 

But  we  are  met  with  the  inquiry,  How  are  the  owners  to  be 
compensated  for  the  loss  of  their  property?  This  same  objec 
tion  was  made  to  the  suppression  of  the  African  slave-trade. 
British  merchants  had  invested  large  capitals  in  the  traffic,  and 
it  was  contended  that  to  prohibit  the  trade  was  to  violate  the 
rights  of  property.  All  governments  possess  the  right  to  sup 
press  practices  injurious  to  society,  and  to  abate  nuisances.* 

If  a  particular  manufactory  is  found  to  be  deleterious  to  the 
health  of  a  city,  it  is  not  only  the  right,  but  the  duty  of  the  civil 
authority,  to  suppress  it.  If  the  national  interests  require  an 
embargo,  the  measure  is  adopted,  although  it  virtually  wrests 
from  the  merchant  his  property,  by  depriving  him  of  the  use  of 
his  own  ships. 

The  State  of  New  York  abolished  slavery  without  compen 
sating  the  slave-holders.  The  same  has  been  done  in  Mexico, 
and  in  various  instances  in  South  America ;  and  the  compensa 
tion  given  by  Parliament  to  the  West  India  proprietors,  probably 
arose  from  the  consideration  that  the  legislators  who  enacted 
the  abolition  law,  were  not  themselves  personally  affected  by  it ; 
and  in  order,  therefore,  to  avoid  the  reproach  of  indulging  their 
benevolence  at  the  expense  of  others,  granted  a  pecuniary  com 
pensation  to  the  owners  of  the  emancipated  slaves. 

To  contend  that  the  slaves  in  the  Southern  States  ought  not 
to  be  emancipated  by  law,  except  on  the  payment  to  their 
masters,  of  their  market  value,  is  to  contend  that  slavery  ought 


17* 


194  JAY'S  WORKS. 

to  be  perpetual.  Such  a  payment  is  MORALLY  IMPOSSIBLE. 
By  whom  can  it  be  made  ?  The  Federal  Government  have 
neither  the  will  nor  the  constitutional  power  to  make  it.  But 
admitting  it  possessed  both,  the  appropriation  of  the  national 
funds  to  this  purpose  would  not  be  such  a  payment,  because  a 
very  large  proportion  of  those  funds  would  be  drawn  from  the 
slave-holders  themselves  ;  and  it  would  be  an  insulting  mockery 
to  offer  to  pay  them  with  their  own  money.  To  suppose  that 
the  free  States  would  be  willing,  from  motives  of  disinterested 
benevolence,  to  make  a  present  to  their  neighbors  of  a  THOU 
SAND  MILLIONS  OF  DOLLARS*  is  obviously  absurd :  nor  is  it 
less  absurd  to  insist  that  this  sum  ought  to  be  paid  to  the  masters 
by  the  Legislatures  of  the  slave  States  ;  since  the  pockets  of  the 
masters  are  the  only  sources  whence  those  Legislatures  could 
obtain  the  money. 

So  far  as  the  whole  amount  of  wealth  in  the  community 
is  concerned,  it  would  be  enhanced,  not  diminished  by  emanci 
pation.  This  may  seem  a  strange  assertion  to  follow  the  esti 
mate  we  have  just  made  of  the  market  value  of  the  slave 
population.  But  what  is  the  price  paid  for  a  slave  ?  Nothing 
more  than  the  amount  of  his  wages  for  life,  paid  in  advance ; 
paid,  it  is  true,  to  another,  but  still  paid  as  an  equivalent  for 
labor  to  be  performed,  and  to  be  refunded  with  interest  out  of 
that  labor.  Now  it  is  obvious  that  it  is  the  product  of  this  labor 
which  can  alone  add  anything  to  the  aggregate  wealth;  and 
that  no  diminution  of  that  Avealth  can  be  caused  by  paying  for 
the  labor  as  it  is  performed,  monthly,  or  yearly,  instead  of  paying 
for  the  whole  of  it  in  advance. 

This  argument,  it  may  be  said,  applies  only  to  the  purchase 
and  sale  of  slaves ;  but  that  where  a  planter  is  already  in  pos 
session  of  them,  he  would  certainly  lose  a  part  of  his  profits 
by  being  compelled  to  pay  him  wages,  and  this  loss  would  be 
so  much  deducted  by  emancipation  from  the  general  stock. 
The  fallacy  of  this  opinion  may  be  perceived  by  recollecting 
that  it  can  in  no  degree  affect  the  national  wealth,  whether  the 

*  Estimating  the  slaves  at  an  average  value  of  $400,  the  amount  would  now 
nearly  equal  this  sum,  and  in  a  few  years  far  exceed  it. 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  195 

horse  with  which  a  farmer  tills  his  corn-field  was  reared  by 
himself  or  purchased  from  his  neighbor.  It  is  the  corn  produced, 
and  not  the  money  paid  for  the  animal  by  one  man  and  received 
by  another,  that  augments  the  riches  of  the  country. 

If  the  slaves  are  worth  a  thousand  millions  of  dollars,  it  is 
evidence  that  their  labor  must  be  worth  much  more  ;  because  to 
their  price  is  to  be  added  the  cost  of  their  maintenance,  and  the 
whole  is  to  be  reimbursed  with  profit  out  of  their  labor.  Now 
colonization  would  utterly  annihilate  all  this  labor ;  it  calls  upon 
the  South  to  surrender  a  commodity  worth  more  than  a  thousand 
millions ;  and  upon  this  surrender,  which  would  convert  the 
whole  slave  region  into  a  wilderness,  it  rests  all  its  hopes  of  the 
ultimate  abolition  of  slavery  ! 

Emancipation,  on  the  contrary,  instead  of  removing  millions 
of  laborers,  would  stimulate  their  industry,  improve  their  morals, 
quicken  their  intelligence,  and  convert  a  dangerous,  idle,  and 
vicious  population  into  wholesome  citizens.  Were  all  the  slaves 
in  South  Carolina  emancipated  to-morrow,  every  branch  of 
industry  would  derive  new  energy,  and  every  species  of  property 
an  increased  value  from  the  additional  security  which  such  a 
measure  would  give  to  society.  All  dread  of  insurrection  would 
vanish,  and  one-half  of  the  population,  who  are  now  regarded  as 
implacable  foes,  would  be  converted  into  useful  friends. 

But  it  is  objected,  that  the  emancipated  blacks  will  form  a 
bad  population.  One  would  think,  from  this  objection,  that  the 
slaves  now  form  a  good  population,  and  that  they  are  to  be  ren 
dered  ignorant  and  immoral  by  freedom.  Unquestionably,  the 
liberated  slaves,  like  all  other  vicious  and  degraded  people,  will, 
while  such,  form  a  bad  population  ;  but  if  they  are  such  while 
in  bondage,  and  must  ever  remain  such  until  liberated,  then 
emancipation  is  the  only  process  by  which  a  bad  can  be  con 
verted  into  a  good  population.  As  soon  as  they  are  free,  they 
will  be  accessible  to  education  and  religious  instruction,  and  all 
those  various  motives  which  operate  as  a  wholesome  restraint  on 
the  evil  passions  of  our  nature.  It  would  be  most  unjust  to 
estimate  the  future  character  of  the  emancipated  slaves,  sup 
posing  slavery  to  be  immediately  abolished,  by  the  present  char- 


196  JAY'S  WORKS. 

acter  of  the  free  negroes.  These  last,  in  the  slave  States,  are  a 
hated  and  persecuted  race.  They  are  kept  not  only  in  ignorance, 
but  in  idleness.  The  planters  will  not  employ  them,  for  fear 
they  will  contaminate  the  slaves ;  and  the  whole  legislation  of 
the  Southern  States  towards  uthis  people,  is  to  degrade  and 
brutify  them.  But  these  wicked  efforts  are  the  results  of 
slavery,  and  would  cease  with  it.  Were  slavery  abolished,  then 
it  would  be  the  obvious  interest  of  the  South  to  improve  the 
black  population,  and  the  causes  which  necessarily  render  the 
free  blacks  vicious,  would  no  longer  operate.  The  same  remark 
applies,  although  with  less  force,  to  the  free  blacks  of  the 
North.  Colonization  and  slavery  have  both  had  their  influence 
in  keeping  alive  and  aggravating  the  prejudices  against  color, 
and  these  prejudices  have  led  to  that  system  of  persecution  and 
oppression  to  which  the  free  blacks  here  are  subjected. 

And  now  what  injury  or  loss  would  the  planter  sustain  by  the 
emancipation  of  his  slaves  ?  As  a  trader  in  human  flesh,  his 
vocation  would,  indeed,  be  gone,  but  as  the  cultivator  of  the  soil, 
his  profits  would  be  undiminished.  The  number  of  laborers  would 
be  as  great  as  before ;  and  they  would  still  be  dependent  on  labor 
for  their  support.  They  now  cost  their  owner  their  food  and  cloth 
ing,  and  their  maintenance  in  sickness,  in  youth,  and  in  old  age ; 
the  expense  also  of  the  idle  and  worthless,  is  as  great  as  that  of 
the  good.  Their  cost  as  free  laborers  would  be  but  little  more 
than  at  present,  while  their  characters  would  be  improved,  and 
the  employer  could  select  such  laborers  as  his  occasions  required. 
The  laborers,  finding  their  wages,  and  of  course  their  comforts, 
depending  on  their  good  conduct,  would  be  prompted  to  industry 
and  sobriety ;  and  having  nothing  to  gain  by  insurrection,  and 
feeling  no  injuries  to  avenge,  all  malignant  designs  against  their 
employers  would  be  laid  aside,  and  they  would  soon  make  such 
advances  in  intelligence  and  morality,  as  would  contribute  no 
less  to  the  good  order  and  peace  of  society,  than  to  their  own 
happiness. 

Abolitionists  are  constantly  called  on  for  a  plan  of  emanci 
pation.  They  have  little  encouragement  to  respond  to  the  call. 
If  they  propose  the  simple  plan  of  proclaiming  by  act  of  the 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  197 

State  Legislatures,  the  immediate  and  unqualified  abolition  of 
slavery,  they  are  denounced  as  reckless  incendiaries.  If  they 
intimate  that  abolition  does  not  necessarily  inhibit  all  compul 
sory  labor,  and  point  to  the  rural  code  of  St.  Domingo  and  the 
apprentice  system  of  the  West  Indies,  they  are  reproached  with 
wishing  to  substitute  one  kind  of  slavery  for  another.  But, 
in  truth,  they  are  under  no  obligation  of  duty  or  policy  to  pro 
pose  any  specific  plan.  No  Temperance  Society  has  felt  itself 
bound,  because  it  pronounced  the  traffic  in  ardent  spirits  to  be 
sinful,  to  furnish  venders  with  plans  for  employing  their  capitals 
in  other  occupations. 

The  details  of  emancipation,  and  the  various  legal  provisions 
proper  to  render  it  safe  and  convenient,  are  not  prescribed  by 
the  great  principles  of  justice  and  religion,  but  by  considerations 
of  local  policy.  It  is  not  probable  that  if  all  the  Southern 
Legislatures  were  sincerely  anxious  to  abolish  slavery,  any  two 
of  them  would  do  it  in  precisely  the  same  manner,  and  under 
the  same  regulations.  We  have  seen  one  plan  pursued  in  St. 
Domingo,  another  in  Bermuda  and  Antigua,  a  third  in  the 
other  British  West  Indies,  and  still  different  plans  in  South 
America. 

Of  all  these  plans,  that  adopted  in  Mexico,  Bermuda  and 
Antigua,  of  immediate,  total  and  unqualified  emancipation,  will, 
there  is  reason  to  believe,  be  found  in  all  cases  the  most  safe 
and  expedient. 

This  plan  removes  from  the  slave  all  cause  for  discontent- 
He  is  free,  and  his  own  master,  and  he  can  ask  for  no  more. 
Yet  he  is,  in  fact,  for  a  time,  absolutely  dependent  on  his  late 
owner.  He  can  look  to  no  other  person  for  food  to  eat,  clothes 
to  put  on,  or  house  to  shelter  him.  His  first  wish  therefore  is, 
to  remain  where  he  is,  and  he  receives  as  a  favor,  permission  to 
labor  in  the  service  of  him  whom  the  day  before  he  regarded  as 
his  oppressor.  But  labor  is  no  longer  the  badge  of  his  servi 
tude,  and  the  consummation  of  his  misery ;  it  is  the  evidence  of 
his  liberty,  for  it  is  voluntary.  For  the  first  time  in  his  life,  he 
is  a  party  to  a  contract.  He  negotiates  with  his  late  master, 
and  returns  to  the  scene  of  his  former  toil,  and  the  scene  of  his 


198  JAY'S  WORKS. 

stripes  and  his  tears,  with  a  joyful  heart,  to  labor  for  HIMSELF. 
The  wages  he  has  agreed  to  accept,  will,  in  fact,  be  little  more 
than  the  value  of  his  maintenance ;  for  it  is  not  to  be  expected, 
that  in  a  treaty  with  his  employer  his  diplomacy  will  gain  for 
him  any  signal  advantages  ;  but  still  there  will  be  a  charm  in 
the  very  name  of  wages  which  will  make  the  pittance  he  receives 
appear  a  treasure  in  his  eyes.  Thus  will  the  transition  from 
slave  to  free  labor  be  effected  instantaneously,  and  with  scarcely 
any  perceptible  interruption  of  the  ordinary  pursuits  of  life.  In 
the  course  of  time,  the  value  of  negro  labor,  like  all  other  ven 
dible  commodities,  will  be  regulated  by  the  supply  and  demand, 
and  justice  be  done  both  to  the  planter  and  his  laborers.  The 
very  consciousness,  moreover,  that  justice  is  done  to  both  parties, 
will  remove  their  mutual  suspicions  and  animosities,  and  substi 
tute  in  their  place  feelings  of  kindness  and  confidence.  No 
white  man  in  Antigua,  surrounded  as  he  is  by  blacks,  now 
dreams  of  insurrection,  or  fears  the  midnight  assassin.  Can  as 
much  be  said  of  our  Southern  planters  ? 

In  concluding  this  chapter,  we  beg  leave  to  address  the  fol 
lowing  questions  to  the  reader,  and  we  beseech  him  seriously  to 
inquire  what  duties  are  prompted  by  the  answers  which  his  con 
science  and  understanding  may  compel  him  to  return. 

Do  you  believe  it  to  be  agreeable  to  the  will  of  God,  and  the 
welfare  of  our  country,  that  slavery  should  be  perpetual  ? 

Is  it  either  possible  or  probable  that  slavery  can  or  will  be 
removed  by  colonization  ? 

If  slavery  be  not  abolished  by  law,  is  it  not  probable  that  it 
will,  in  time,  be  terminated  by  violence  ? 

Do  the  precepts  of  Christianity  and  the  lessons  of  history 
recommend  gradual,  in  preference  to  immediate  emancipation  ? 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  199 


CHAPTER    XI. 

DANGER    OF    CONTINUED    SLAVERY. 

WHILE  slave-holders  and  colonizationists  delight  to  expatiate 
on  the  danger  of  immediate  emancipation,  and  to  represent  its 
advocates  as  reckless  incendiaries,  ready  to  deluge  the  country 
in  blood,  they  seem  scarcely  conscious  that  any  danger  is  to  be 
apprehended  from  slavery  itself.  Yet  the  whole  history  of  sla 
very  is  a  history  of  the  struggles  of  the  oppressed  to  recover 
their  liberty.  The  Romans  had  their  servile  wars,  in  one  of 
which  forty  thousand  slaves  were  embodied  in  arms,  Italy  rav 
aged,  and  Rome  herself  menaced. 

A  European  writer  remarks  : 

"  The  formidable  rebellion  of  the  Jamaica  slaves,  in  1762,  is  well 
known  ;  and  in  almost  every  island  in  the  Archipelago,  have  repeated 
insurrections  broken  out ;  sometimes  the  result  of  plans  laid  with  the 
utmost  secrecy,  and  very  widely  extended,  always  accompanied  by  the 
horrors  of  African  warfare." 

The  destruction  of  property  in  Jamaica,  in  the  insurrection 
of  1832,  was  estimated  by  the  Legislature  at  £1,154,583.  Any 
commotion  of  the  emancipated  slaves,  that  should  cost  the  island 
one-hundredth  part  of  this  sum,  would  be  hailed  both  there  and 
here,  as  demonstrative  of  the  folly  and  hazard  of  emancipation. 

And  have  we  not  in  our  own  country  had  melancholy,  heart 
rending  proofs  of  the  danger  of  slavery  ? 

In  1712  and  1741,  negro  insurrections  occurred  in  New  York, 
and  we  may  judge  of  the  alarm  they  excited,  by  the  shocking 
means  used  to  prevent  their  recurrence.  Of  the  leaders  of  the 
last  insurrection,  thirteen  were  burned  alive,  eighteen  hung,  and 
eighty  transported.  In  the  single  State  of  South  Carolina,  there 
have  been  no  less  than  seven  insurrections  designed  or  executed. 
In  1711,  the  House  of  Assembly  complained  of  certain  fugitive 
slaves,  who  "  keep  out  armed,  and  robbing  and  plundering 
houses  and  plantations,  and  putting  the  inhabitants  of  this  prov 
ince  in  great  fear  and  terror."  In  1730,  an  open  rebellion 


200  JAY'S  WORKS. 

occurred,  in  which  the  negroes  were  actually  armed  and  embodied. 
In  1739,  there  were  no  less  than  three  rebellions,  as  appears  from 
a  petition  from  the  Council  and  Assembly  to  the  king,  in  which 
they  complain  of  an  "  insurrection  of  our  slaves,  in  which  many  of 
the  inhabitants  were  murdered  in  a  barbarous  and  cruel  manner  ; 
and  that  §was  no  sooner  quelled,  than  another  was  projected  in 
Charleston,  and  a  third  lately  in  the  very  heart  of  the  settle 
ment,  but  happily  discovered  time  enough  to  be  prevented." 
In  1816,  there  was  a  conspiracy  of  the  slaves  in  Camden  and  its 
vicinity,  "  the  professed  design  of  which  was  to  murder  all  the 
whites  and  free  themselves."  The  conspiracy  in  Charleston  in 
1822,  and  the  sacrifice  of  human  life  to  which  it  led,  are  well 
known.  But  in  no  instance  has  the  danger  of  slavery  been  so 
vividly  illustrated  as  in  the  tragedy  of  Southampton. 

A  fanatic  slave  conceived,  from  some  supposed  signs  in  the 
heavens  or  peculiarity  in  the  weather,  that  he  was  called  by 
God  to  destroy  the  whites.  He  communicated  his  commission 
to  five  other  slaves,  who  engaged  to  aid  him  in  executing  it. 

The  conspirators  agreed  to  meet  at  a  certain  place  on  the 
night  of  the  21st  of  August,  1831.  They  assembled  at  the 
appointed  hour,  and  the  leader,  Nat  Turner,  beheld  with  surprise 
a  sixth  man,  who  had  not  been  invited  by  him  to  join  the  enter 
prise,  but  who  had  learned  from  another  source  the  cause  of  the 
meeting ;  and  on  inquiring  for  what  purpose  he  had  come,  re 
ceived  the  remarkable  answer,  — "  My  life  is  worth  no  more 
than  that  of  others,  and  my  liberty  is  dear  to  me."  With  these 
six  associates,  Turner  commenced  the  work  of  destruction.  By 
sunrise,  the  number  of  murderers  was  swelled  to  fourteen,  and 
by  ten  o'clock  the  same  morning,  to  forty ! 

From  the  testimony  given  on  the  trial  of  Turner,  and  which 
has  been  published,  it  appears  that  there  was  no  previous  con 
cert,  except  between  Turner  and  his  six  original  associates,  and 
that  no  white  or  free  colored  man  was  privy  to  their  design. 

The  dates  we  have  given  of  the  various  insurrections,  prove 
conclusively  that  they  were  in  no  degree  connected  with  discus 
sions  respecting  abolition ;  and  at  the  time  of  the  Southampton 
massacre,  there  was  no  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  the  United 
States  advocating  immediate  emancipation. 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  201 

Abolitionists  have  been  often  charged  with  a  desire  to  foment 
insurrections ;  but  the  charge  is  wholly  gratuitous,  and  no  proof 
whatever  of  such  sublimated  wickedness  has  ever  been  adduced 
against  them.  On  the  contrary,  their  characters,  professions 
and  conduct  repel  the  calumny.  The  whole  history  of  abolition 
shows  that  its  only  tendency  is  to  insure  peace  and  safety. 

We  have  brought  facts  to  establish  the  danger  of  slavery  ;  let 
us  now  attend  to  the  confessions  of  slave-holders  to  the  same 
point.  A  South  Carolina  writer,  while  urging  the  necessity  of 
a  stricter  police  over  the  slaves,  thus  describes  them  : 

"  Let  it  never  be  forgotten,  that  our  negroes  are  truly  the  Jacobins 
of  the  country ;  that  they  are  the  anarchists,  and  the  domestic  enemy ; 

THE  COMMON  ENEMY  OF  CIVILIZED  SOCIETY,  AND  THE  BARBA 
RIANS  WHO  WOULD  IF  THEY  COULD  BECOME  THE  DESTROYERS  OF 
OUR  RACE."  * 

The  Southern  Religious  Telegraph  says  : 

"  Hatred  to  the  whites,  with  the  exception  in  some  cases  of  attach 
ment  to  the  person  and  family  of  the  master,  is  nearly  universal  among 
the  black  population.  We  have  then  a  FOE  cherished  in  our  very 
bosoms  —  a  foe  WILLING  TO  DRAW  OUR  LIFE-BLOOD,  whenever  the 
opportunity  is  offered,  and,  in  the  mean  time,  intent  on  doing  us  all 
the  mischief  in  his  power." 

Now,  be  it  recollected  that  these  "  destroyers  of  our  race," 
these  foes,  willing  "  to  draw  the  life-blood  "  of  the  whites,  are 
rapidly  advancing  to  an  immense  numerical  majority.  And  on 
what  grounds  do  the  whites  rest  their  hopes  of  security  from 
these  Jacobins  and  anarchists,  —  on  equal  laws,  the  diffusion  of 
education,  and  the  influence  of  religion  ?  Let  Governor  Haynes 
of  South  Carolina,  answer  the  question. 

"  A  STATE  OF  MILITARY  PREPARATION  must  always  be  with  us  a 
state  of  perfect  domestic  security.  A  profound  peace,  and  consequent 
apathy,  may  expose  us  to  the  danger  of  domestic  insurrection."  Mes 
sage  to  the  Legislature,  1833. 

Thus,  profound  peace,  which  is  a  blessing  to  all  other  people, 
will  be  a  curse  to  the  slave-holders,  and  they  are  to  hold  all  that 
is  dear  to  them  by  the  tenure  of  military  preparation  ! 

*  A  refutation  of  the  "calumnies   inculcated  against  the  Southern  and 
Western  States.     Charleston,  1822. 
18 


202 

Is  it,  we  ask,  possible,  for  any  nation  to  have  a  worse  popu 
lation  than  that  described  in  the  preceding  extracts,  or  to  be 
doomed  to  a  more  deplorable  fate  than  that  of  perpetual  military 
preparation  ? 

We  have  now  seen  what  are  the  religious  and  political  prin 
ciples,  and  what  are  the  historical  facts  which  lead  the  American 
Anti-Savery  Society  to  recommend  immediate  emancipation  to 
their  Southern  brethren. 

But  it  is  demanded,  with  an  air  of  supercilious  triumph,  what 
have  Northern  men  to  do  with  slavery,  and  what  right  have  they 
to  interfere  with  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  South  ?  And 
is  this  question  addressed  to  the  followers  of  HIM  who  com 
manded  his  disciples  to  "  go  into  all  the  world,  and  to  preach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature  ?  "  As  well  might  it  be  asked  of  the 
Christians  of  America,  what  they  have  to  do  with  the  religion 
of  Brahma,  —  what  right  they  have  to  interfere  to  rescue  the 
widow  from  the  burning  pile,  or  the  devotee  from  the  wheels  of 
Juggernaut.  Christians  are  no  less  bound  by  the  injunction  to 
"  do  good  unto  all  men,"  to  endeavor,  by  lawful  means,  to  break 
the  fetters  of  the  slave,  than  to  deliver  the  victim  of  Pagan 
superstition.  The  obligation  is  imperative,  and  they  who  duly 
respect  its  authority,  will  not  be  deterred  by  violence  or  denun 
ciation  from  obeying  its  monitions.  The  same  moral  sense 
which  has  led  abolitionists  to  oppose  slavery,  will,  we  trust,  for 
ever  lead  them  to  repudiate  in  their  practice  the  detestable  doc 
trine  that  the  end  sanctifies  the  means.  The  means  they 
employ,  except  in  relation  to  slavery  under  the  authority  of 
Congress,  are  wholly  confined  to  arguments  addressed  to  the 
conscience  and  understanding;  and  intended  only  to  excite  the 
voluntary  action  of  the  masters.  With  them,  and  with  them 
alone,  rests  the  power  of  deciding  on  the  course  they  will  pur 
sue.  But  let  them  ponder  well  the  consequences  to  themselves 
and  their  posterity,  of  their  momentous  decision. 

By  rejecting  abolition,  they  reject  all  the  rich  and  varied 
blessings  in  morals,  in  security,  in  political  power  and  wealth 
which  it  offers  to  their  acceptance.  And  what  do  they  retain  ?  — 
the  licentiousness,  cruelty,  and  injustice ;  the  depression  of  enter- 


AMERICAN   ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  203 

prise,  the  wasting  of  strength,  the  fearful  forebodings,  the  hourly 
jeopardy,  the  frowns  of  public  opinion,  and  the  reproaches  of 
conscience,  which  are  and  must  be  the  inseparable  attendants  on 
slavery.  Before  they  refuse  to  retreat  from  the  volcano  on 
which  they  are  standing,  let  them  look  into  the  terrific  crater 
which  yawns  beneath  them. 

If  slavery  is  to  be  perpetual,  it  will  be  well  to  estimate,  not 
only  the  number  of  slaves  with  which  our  Southern  country  is 
to  be  peopled,  but  also  the  ratio  they  are  to  bear  to  their  masters. 
It  must  be  recollected  that  all  those  moral  checks  on  population 
which  arise  from  religion,  the  refinements  of  civilized  life,  and 
the  difficulty  of  sustaining  a  family,  are  wanting  to  the  slave. 
Hence  there  is  always  a  tendency  to  a  far  more  rapid  multipli 
cation  in  a  slave  than  a  free  population.  Certain  circumstances 
may  indeed  check  this  tendency,  but  experience  proves  that  in  this 
country  they  exist  to  a  very  slight  extent,  if  at  all.  Our  slaves 
are  increasing  in  a  constantly  accelerated  ratio.  In  the  ten 
years  from  1840  to  1850,  judging  from  the  result  of  the  last 
census,  the  increase  will  be  1,049,275,  a  number  greater  than 
all  the  slaves  just  liberated  in  the  West  Indies  !  The  next  ten 
years,  a  still  greater  number  will  be  added,  and  so  on  indefinitely. 
In  the  mean  time,  new  and  powerful  checks  will  be  operating  to 
retard  the  progress  of  the  white  population.  The  evils  attend 
ant  on  slavery  will  offer  strong  inducements  to  the  young  and 
indigent  to  forsake  the  land  of  their  fathers,  and  to  seek  a  safer 
home,  and  a  wider  field  for  enterprise.  Virginia  affords  a  striking 
illustration  of  this  remark.  The  domestic  slave-trade  annually 
relieves  that  State  of  more  than  six  thousand  slaves,  and  yet, 
notwithstanding  this  drain,  they  continue  to  increase. 

In  1830,  the  colored  population  in  the  counties  east  of  the 
Blue  Kidge,  exceeded  the  white  by  81,078,  whereas,  forty  years 
before,  in  the  same  counties,  the  whites  had  a  majority  of 
25,098. 

The  number  of  slaves  must  at  length  reach  the  point  of  prof 
itable  employment,  after  which,  each  additional  one  becomes  an 
incumbrance.  Soon  after  this  point  is  reached,  the  traffic  in 
slaves  must  cease,  and  the  owners  will  be  unable  to  dispose  of 


204  JAY'S  WORKS. 

their  superfluous  hands.  The  consequence  will  be  the  gradual 
impoverishment  of  the  proprietors.  As  the  slaves  increase  in 
number,  and  diminish  in  value,  their  masters  will  gradually 
become  less  interested  in  their  welfare,  and  more  apprehensive 
of  their  physical  strength.  Fear  is  a  cruel  passion,  and  espe 
cially  as  it  silences  the  remonstrances  of  conscience  by  the  plea 
of  self-preservation.  As  the  danger  becomes  more  pressing,  the 
precautions  of  the  master  will  become  more  and  more  rigorous : 
every  slave  being  regarded  and  treated  as  an  enemy,  will,  in  fact, 
become  one  ;  and  every  increase  of  cruelty  will  but  hasten  the 
final  catastrophe. 

In  the  mean  time,  slavery  will  have  ceased  in  every  other 
part  of  the  civilized  world.  In  Brazil,  it  will  probably  receive 
its  death-blow  in  the  first  popular  revolution.  In  the  Danish 
Islands,  it  will  expire  in  two  years;  and  in  the  French  and 
Spanish  colonies,  it  cannot  long  survive.*  And  when  this 
loathsome  leprosy  shall  alone  cling  to  the  republicans  of  our 
Southern  and  Western  States,  in  what  light  will  they,  must 
they,  be  regarded  by  the  rest  of  the  human  race  ?  This  is  an 
age  in  which  public  opinion  has  snatched  the  sceptre  from  kings 
and  senates,  and  reigns  an  imperious  and  absolute  despot.  She 
may,  indeed,  be  influenced,  but  not  resisted.  She  called  for  the 
abolition  of  the  African  slave-trade,  and  the  traffickers  in  human 
flesh,  for  centuries  encouraged  and  protected  by  law,  became  a 
proscribed  race.  She  is  now  calling  for  the  freedom  of  the 
slave,  and  his  shackles  are  falling  from  him.  Emancipation  will 
soon  become  the  common  cause  of  Christendom,  as  the  abolition 
of  the  slave-trade  was  a  few  years  since. 

In  1822,  the  House  of  Representatives  requested  the  Presi 
dent  to  enter  into  negotiations  with  the  several  maritime  powers, 
for  the  effectual  suppression  of  the  slave-trade,  and  its  ultimate 
denunciation  as  piracy;  and  negotiations  were  accordingly 
opened  on  this  subject  with  Great  Britain,  Spain,  Portugal, 
Russia,  France,  the  Netherlands,  Buenos  Ayres  and  Colombia. 

*  The  voluntary  manumissions  in  the  French  Colonies  from  1st  of  January, 
1831,  to  1st  of  June,  1833,  were  21,962.  Since  the  late  Abolition  Act  of  Great 
Britain,  an  Anti-Slavery  Society  has  been  organized  in  Paris,  with  the  Due 
de  Broglie  at  its  head.  It  is  said  to  have  "  derived  its  existence  in  the  very 
bosom  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies." 


AMERICAN    ANTI-SLAVERY    SOCIETY.  205 

In  1821,  Portugal  persisting  in  the  traffic,  the  British  House 
of  Commons  called  upon  the  king,  to  endeavor,  by  negotiation, 
to  prevail  on  the  powers  of  Europe  to  exclude  from  their  ports 
the  produce  of  the  Portuguese  Colonies.  Portugal  yielded,  and 
the  trade  has  been  renounced  by  every  Christian  nation  in 
Europe  and  America.  And  may  not  the  same,  or  similar  means, 
be  adopted  by  other  nations  to  put  an  end  to  American  slavery? 
It  is  by  no  means  improbable,  that  before  many  years  elapse,* 
laws  will  be  passed,  and  treaties  made,  for  excluding  the  pro 
ducts  of  slave-labor  from  Europe. 

So  long  ago  as  1806,  Mr.  Windham,  in  the  House  of  Com 
mons,  "  did  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  when  the  proper  time  arrived, 
and  the  consent  of  other  powers  could  be  obtained  for  its  abolition, 
slavery  ought  not  to  be  suffered  to  exist  among  the  institutions 
of  any  civilized  State." 

The  emperor  of  Austria  has  issued  a  decree,  declaring  — 
"  Every  man,  by  the  right  of  nature,  sanctioned  by  reason,  must 
be  considered  a  free  person.  Every  slave  becomes  free  from 
the  moment  he  touches  the  Austrian  soil,  or  an  Austrian  ship." 

The  Edinburgh  Review  insists,  that  "  the  existence  of  sla 
very  in  America  is  an  atrocious  crime,  with  which  no  means  can 
be  kept," 

Mr.  Buckingham,  member  of  Parliament,  lately  asserted  at  a 
public  meeting :  "  The  greater  proportion  of  the  people  of  Eng 
land  demand  not  merely  emancipation,  but  the  immediate  eman 
cipation  of  the  slaves,  in  whatever  quarter  of  the  world  they  may 
be  found" 

Daniel  O'Connell,  shortly  before  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
British  Dominions,  declared  in  public,  "  The  West  Indies  will 
be  obliged  to  grant  emancipation,  and  then  we  witttum  to  Amer 
ica,  and  to  every  part  of  Europe,  and  require  emancipation" 

A  society  has  just  been  formed  in  England,  entitled,  "the 
British  and  Foreign  Society  for  the  universal  abolition  of  negro 
slavery  and  the  slave-trade." 

*  A  statement  has  recently  been  laid  before  the  British  Parliament  of  the 
amount  of  such  produce  of  American  slave-labor  imported  into  Great  Britain 
as  enters  into  competition  with  the  productions  of  the  West  Indies. 

18* 


206 

Our  pride  may  revolt  at  the  idea  of  foreign  interference,  but 
it  will  be  the  interference  not  of  force,  but  of  public  opinion, 
against  which  our  fleets  and  armies  will  be  of  no  avail. 

We  cannot  compel  other  countries  to  buy  our  cotton  and 
sugar,  or  to  admit  our  citizens  from  the  South,  when  they  visit 
Europe,  to  the  usual  courtesies  of  social  intercourse.  "  When 
an  American  comes  into  society,"  says  Daniel  O'Connell,  in  a 
numerous  assembly,  "  he  will  be  asked,  t  Are  you  one  of  the 
thieves,  or  are  you  an  honest  man  ?  If  you  are  an  honest  man, 
then  you  have  given  liberty  to  your  slaves ;  if  you  are  among 
the  thieves,  the  sooner  you  take  the  outside  of  the  house  the 
better.' " 

The  very  coarseness  of  this  invective  in  the  mouth  of  the 
great  agitator,  indicates  the  temper  of  the  British  population 
on  this  subject ;  a  temper  which,  fostered  as  it  is  by  the  progress 
of  liberal  principles,  will,  in  time,  become  the  temper  of  all 
Europe,  and,  indeed,  of  all  the  world.  While  the  slave-holders 
are  suffering,  without  sympathy  and  without  redress,  from  the 
harassing  influence  of  this  temper,  their  slaves  will  be  multiply 
ing  with  a  fearful  rapidity,  and  becoming  each  day  more  conscious 
of  their  own  strength ;  and  unless  their  fetters  are  loosened,  they 
will  inevitably  be  BURST. 

Our  Southern  brethren  are  the  masters  of  their  own  destiny ; 
may  a  gracious  God  lead  them  to  know  the  things  which  belong 
to  their  peace,  before  they  be  forever  hidden  from  their  eyes. 


A  VIEW  OF  THE  ACTION 

OF  THE 

FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT, 

IN 

BEHALF  OF  SLAVERY. 


"WE,   THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES,  do  ordain  and  establish 
this  Constitution." — Federal  Constitution. 


INTRODUCTION 


TO   SECOND   EDITIONS 


THE  rapid  sale  of  the  first  edition  of  this  work,  and  the  almost  im 
mediate  call  for  another,  afford  gratifying  evidence  of  the  awakening 
attention  of  the  public  to  the  action  of  the  Federal  Government  in 
behalf  of  slavery.  That  action  is  so  iniquitous  in  itself,  and  so  dangerous 
in  its  consequences  to  the  liberties  of  the  country,  that  it  needs  only  to 
be  fully  known,  to  be  restrained  by  the  patriotism  and  moral  sense  of 
the  community,  within  the  limits  prescribed  by  the  Constitution  and 
the  obvious  principles  of  humanity  and  justice.  It  is  not  easy,  however, 
to  enlighten  those  who  prefer  darkness  to  light ;  nor  to  persuade  men 
to  act  in  opposition  to  their  supposed  pecuniary  or  political  interests. 
But  there  can  be  no  triumph  where  there  is  no  struggle  —  that  religion 
is  worthless,  which  cooperates  with  human  depravity;  and  that  patriot 
ism  an  empty  name,  which  only  echoes  the  shout  of  the  multitude. 

If  the  friends  of  human  liberty  have  in  this  country  much  to  cover 
them  with  grief  and  shame,  they  have  also  much  to  stimulate  their 
exertions,  and  much  to  assure  them  of  ultimate  success.  Their  own 
rights — the  virtue,  happiness  and  liberty  of  their  descendants  —  the 
honor,  prosperity  and  freedom  of  their  country,  are  all  involved  in  the 
issue.  Slavery  is  a  perfidious,  encroaching  enemy,  that  must  either 
conquer  or  be  conquered.  Let  the  warfare  now  waged  against  it  be 
succeeded  by  a  peace,  and  soon  Texas,  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  in  time  even  the  Atlantic  States  would  be  added  to  its  dominions. 
Every  dictate,  therefore,  of  patriotism  or  religion,  of  personal  interest, 
of  paternal  affection,  unites  in  urging  us  to  use  all  lawful  means  to  stay 
the  progress  of  the  destroyer,  and  to  teach  our  children  after  us  to 
continue  the  contest. 

But  is  not  the  struggle  hopeless,  and  ought  we  not  to  sit  down  in 


against  every  defeated  candidate  for  office,  and  every  losing  political 
party  ?  But  who  hears  our  baffled  politicians  advising  submission  to 
the  victors  because  public  opinion  is  against  the  vanquished  ?  Public 
opinion  is  a  mighty  agent  for  good  or  for  evil ;  but  it  is  as  fickle  as  it 


210  INTRODUCTION. 

is  powerful.  It  strowed  the  path  of  the  Redeemer  with  palm  branches, 
and  afterwards  nailed  him  to  the  cross. 

For  ages  it  guarded  and  preserved  all  the  oppressions  and  cruelties 
of  the  feudal  system ;  it  is  now  gradually,  but  surely  destroying  its 
every  vestige.  *  But  a  few  years  since,  public  opinion  not  merely 
sanctioned,  but  actually  required  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors ;  it  is 
now  their  potent  enemy. 

But  perhaps  the  most  extraordinary  change  this  mighty  agent  has 
undergone,  is  in  relation  to  slavery  itself;  and  the  friends  of  emanci 
pation  will  find  in  the  history  of  this  transformation  one  of  their  most 
powerful  inducements  to  perseverance. 

For  more  than  two  hundred  years  before  its  abolition,  had  the 
African  slave-trade  been  pursued  by  Christian  nations,  under  the  fos 
tering  protection  of  their  rulers.  No  difference  of  religious  faith,  of 
government,  or  of  climate,  offered  any  check  to  this  accursed  commerce. 
Catholics  and  Protestants,  the  subjects  of  monarchs  and  the  citizens 
of  republics,  natives  of  the  north  and  of  the  south,  alike  thirsted  for  the 
price  of  blood,  alike  participated  in  robbery  and  murder.  In  1774, 
the  British  cabinet  refused  its  assent  to  the  imposition,  by  the  colonial 
legislatures,  of  duties  on  the  importation  of  slaves.  "  We  cannot,"  said 
the  Secretary,  Lord  Dartmouth,  "  allow  the  colonies  to  check  or  dis 
courage  in  any  degree  a  traffic  so  beneficial  to  the  nation ! " 

The  feelings  of  humanity  and  the  powers  of  conscience  were  on  this 
subject  almost  universally  and  totally  paralyzed.  So  late  as  1783,  in 
the  trial  of  a  civil  cause  in  London,  it  appeared  in  evidence,  that  one 
hundred  and  thirty-two  Africans  had  been  thrown  into  the  sea  by  the 
captain  of  a  slaver  to  defraud  the  underwriters.  Minutes  of  the  evi 
dence  were  submitted  to  the  government ;  but  the  victims  were  only 
negroes,  and  their  murderer  was  unmolested. 

In  1786,  the  number  of  unhappy  beings  annually  torn  from  Africa 
was  estimated  at  100,000.  Of  these,  it  was  admitted  at  least  20,000 
perished  on  the  voyage ;  and  of  those  who  survived  to  enter  a  state  of 
hopeless  bondage,  20,000  more,  exhausted  by  suffering  and  despair, 
sunk  into  the  grave  Avithin  two  years. 

Individuals  were  occasionally  found  who  protested  against  the  traffic, 
but  their  voices  were  unheeded.  For  two  centuries  not  a  word  in  rep 
robation,  of  the  trade  had  been  uttered  within  the  walls  of  the  British 
senate.  This  long  silence  was  first  broken  by  Mr.  David  Hartley,  who 
in  1776  moved  in  the  House  of  Commons,  that  the  slave-trade  was 
"  contrary  to  the  laws  of  God  and  the  rights  of  man."  But  the  moral 
sense  of  Great  Britain,  and  indeed  of  the  world,  was  then  too  obtuse  to 
recognize  these  simple  and  now  obvious  truths  ;  and  the  resolution  was 
promptly  rejected.  Seven  years  after,  a  petition  against  the  trade,  the 
first  ever  offered,  was  presented  by  the  Quaker  Society  to  the  Hause 
of  Commons.  But  that  body  did  not  even  condescend  to  consider  it  — 
the  Premier,  Lord  North,  coolly  observing,  that  the  traffic  had,  in  a 
commercial  view,  become  necessary  to  almost  every  nation  in  Europe. 

On  the  7th  of  July,  1783,  shortlv  after  this  official  declaration,  SIX 
Quakers*  met  in  London  "  to  consider  what  steps  they  should  take  for 

*  William  Dillwyn,  George  Harrison,  Sairmel  Hoare,  Thomas  Knowies, 
John  Lloyd,  and  Joseph  Woods.  Their  names  are  registered  in  heaven, 
let  them  not  be  forgotten  on  earth. 


INTRODUCTION.  211 

THE  RELIEF  AND  LIBERATION  OF  THE  NEGRO  SLAVES  IN  THE  WEST 

INDIES,  and  FOR  THE  DISCOURAGEMENT  OF  THE  SLAVE-TRADE  ON 

THE    COAST  OF  AFRICA." 

When  we  reflect  on  the  peculiar  circumstances  under  which  these 
men  assembled,  we  cannot  but  regard  their  meeting  as  one  of  the 
sublimest  instances  of  Christian  faith  unrecorded  in  the  sacred  vol 
ume,  —  a  faith  which,  according  to  the  promise,  -was  effectual  in  remov 
ing  mountains.  At  the  moment  of  their  meeting,  the  maritime  powers 
of  Europe  were  actively  engaged  in  the  trade,  —  a  trade  against  which 

sect  to 
certain 
They 

had,  moreover,  just  witnessed  the  impunity  of  the  wretch  who  had 
deliberately  drowned  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  of  his  fellow-men,  — 
an  impunity  which  warned  them  of  the  utter  insensibility  of  the  public 
to  the  sufferings  of  the  miserable  negroes. 

And  who  were  these  six  men  who  under  such  circumstances  pre 
sumed  to  attempt  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the  slave-trade  —  who 
aspired  to  move  the  moral  world — to  arrest  the  commerce  of  nations — 
to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captive,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison  doors 
to  them  that  were  bound  ?  Did  they  sway  the  councils,  or  lead  the 
armies  of  empires  ?  —  were  they  possessed  of  learning  to  command  the 
attention  of  the  wise  and  great,  or  of  eloquence  to  mould  at  their  will 
the  passions  of  multitudes  V  They  were  humble  and  obscure  individu 
als,  belonging  to  a  small  and  despised  sect,  and  precluded  by  their 
religious  tenets  and  social  condition  from  all  political  influence.  But 
they  discovered  from  the  Book  of  God,  what  had  escaped  many  wise 
and  good  men,  that  the  trade  in  question  was  opposed  alike  to  the 
attributes  and  the  precepts  of  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  nations. 

In  laboring,  therefore,  for  its  suppression,  they  were  assured  of  his 
approbation ;  and  without  regarding  their  own  weakness,  or  the  obsta 
cles  before  them,  they  proceeded  steadily  in  the  path  of  duty,  leaving 
the  result  to  HIM  with  whom  all  things  are  possible. 

They  determined  to  hold  frequent  meetings,  of  which  regular  min 
utes  were  kept.  Their  first  object  was  to  enlighten  and  purify  the 
public  mind,  and  for  this  purpose  they  entered  into  negotiations  with 
the  proprietors  of  various  newspapers,  and  secured  a  space  in  their 
columns  for  such  articles  respecting  the  trade  as  they  might  choose 
to  insert.  They  likewise  circulated  books  and  pamphlets  on  the 
subject.  The  seeds  thus  scattered  germinated  slowly,  but  ultimately 
yielded  a  glorious  harvest.  Within  two  years  a  second  petition  was 
presented,  and  like  the  first  was  treated  with  neglect.  The  third  year, 
the  six  associates,  with  the  aid  of  some  friends,  engaged  the  celebrated 
Clarkson  as  their  agent ;  and  so  successful  were  his  labors  in  exciting 
the  sensibilities  of  the  British  public,  that  it  was  found  expedient  to 
divest  the  enterprise  of  its  sectarian  character,  and  the  committee  added 
six  to  their  number  from  other  denominations.  This  new  committee 
soon  became  an  important  body,  receiving  and  appropriating  the 
pecuniary  contributions  to  the  cause,  and  directing  and  cheering  the 
labors  of  its  advocates.  Gradually,  members  of  Parliament,  dignitaries 
of  the  church,  and  political  leaders  subscribed  to  the  funds  of  the  com 
mittee,  and  avowed  their  hostility  to  the  trade. 


212  INTRODUCTION. 

Petitions  were  multiplied,  and  the  government  so  far  condescended 
to  notice  the  rising  excitement,  as  to  appoint  a  commission  to  inquire 
into  the  alleged  atrocities  of  this  branch  of  the  British  commerce.  On 
the  9th  of  May,  1788,  only  five  years  after  the  first  meeting  of  the 
committee,  the  House  of  Commons  voted  that  they  would  at  the  next 
session  take  into  consideration  the  complaints  against  the  African  slaye- 
trade. 

It  is  unnecessary  for  our  purpose  to  pursue  the  details  of  this  instruc 
tive  history.  It  has  already  taught  us  the  possibility  of  rousing  the 
public  attention,  however  lethargic,  by  appeals  to  the  conscience  and 
understanding,  and  the  influence  which  Christian  zeal  and  faith,  unaided 
by  wealth  and  power,  are  capable  of  exerting.  The  few  remaining 
facts  we  shall  notice  convey  the  important  lesson,  that  no  cause,  howr- 
ever  pure,  no  truth,  however  obvious,  can  shield  their  advocates  from 
obloquy,  when  prejudice  and  selfishness  find  it  expedient  to  assail 
them ;  and  also,  that  constancy  in  maintaining  and  inculcating  the  great 
principles  of  justice  and  humanity  will  finally  be  crowned  with  success. 

No  sooner  did  a  parliamentary  inquiry  threaten  to  expose  the  abom 
inations  and  endanger  the  continuance  of  the  traffic,  than  its  advocates, 
reckless  alike  of  truth  and  decency,  vindicated  its  policy,  and  attacked 
with  vindictive  fury  those  who  were  laboring  to  destroy  it.  Abolition 
was  denounced  in  Parliament  as  "  hypocritical,  fanatic,  and  methodis- 
tical."  It  would  lead,  it  was  asserted,  to  "  insurrection,  massacre  and 
ruin  in  the  colonies;  and  in  Great  Britain,  to  the  reduction  of  her 
reveixue,  the  decay  of  her  naval  strength,  and  the  bankruptcy  of  her 
merchants  and  manufactures."  The  trade  was  justified  by  the  press, 
and  even  ministers  of  religion  stepped  forth  to  vindicate  it  on  scriptural 
authority.*  In  1791,  a  bill  was  brought  in  for  the  suppression  of  the 
trade.  The  opposition  to  it  was  malignant  and  successful.  The  measure 
was  pronounced  fit  only  for  the  bigotry  of  the  twelfth  century.  Lord 
John  Russell  termed  it  "  visionary  and  delusive,  a  feeble  attempt  to 
serve  the  cause  of  humanity,  as  other  nations  would  pursue  the  trade 
if  abolished  by  Great  Britain."  Mr.  Stanley  insisted  that  it  was  the 
intention  of  Providence,  from  the  beginning,  that  one  set  of  men  should 
be  slaves  to  another ;  and  he  complained  that  the  trade  had  been  con 
demned  from  the  pulpit ! 

The  friends  of  abolition  were  ridiculed  by  Lord  Chancellor  Thurlow 
from  the  woolsack  ;  and  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  who  afterwards,  as 
WILLIAM  THE  FOURTH,  gave  his  assent  to  the  bill  abolishing  slavery 
throughout  his  dominions,  regardless  of  parliamentary  decorum,  de 
clared,  in  his  place  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that  the  abolitionists  were 
hypocrites  and  fanatics ;  and  in  the  application  of  these  epithets 
included  Mr.  Wilberforce  by  name. 

Ten  times  did  Mr.  Wilberforce,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  endeavor 
to  procure  the  suppression  of  the  traffic,  and  ten  times  was  he  doomed 
to  defeat.  So  late  as  1807,  Lord  Castlereagh,  in  the  British  senate, 

*  As  illustrative  of  public  opinion  at  this  time,  we  give  the  titles  of  two 
pamphlets  published  in  London  in  1788,  viz. :  "  Slavery  no  Oppresion," 
and  "  Scriptural  Researches  on  the  Licitness  of  the  Slave-Trade,  and  show 
ing  its  conformity  with  the  principles  of  natural  and  revealed  religion,  deline 
ated  in  the  writings  of  the  word  of  God."  By  the  Rev.  E.  Harris. 


INTRODUCTION.  213 

vindicated  the  trade  on  scriptural  grounds,  and  avowed  that,  in  his 
opinion,  the  advantages  resulting  from  it  were  so  great,  that  were  it  not 
now  existing,  the  trade  ought  forthwith  to  be  established.  But  the 
triumph  of  justice  and  the  reward  of  faith  and  perseverance  were  nigh 
at  hand.  On  the  25th  of  March,  1807,  twenty-four  years  after  the 
formation  of  the  Quaker  committee,  the  slave-trade  was  abolished  by 
act  of  Parliament. 

Splendid  and  glorious  as  was  this  triumph,  it  was  incomplete  while 
shared  by  Great  Britain  alone.  The  whole  of  Christendom  was  yet 
to  be  brought  to  abjure  a  commerce  condemned  alike  by  reason  and 
revelation.  A  long  course  of  negotiation  ensued,  and  tieaty  after 
treaty  was  made  for  the  abandonment  of  the  traffic,  until,  in  1830, 
every  Christian  nation  in  Europe  and  America  had  prohibited  it. 

The  Quaker  committee,  as  we  have  seen,  proposed,  in  1783,  not 
merely  the  discouragement  of  the  African  slave-trade,  but  also  "  the 
liberation  of  negro  slaves  in  the  West  Indies."  The  struggle  for  this 
last  object  was  continued  after  the  accomplishment  of  the  former  for 
thirty-one  years;  when,  on  the  4th  of  August,  1838,  negro  slavery 
wholly  ceased  throughout  the  British  West  Indies,  and  every  legal 
disability,  founded  on  color,  was  utterly  abolished. 

Thus  has  been  accomplished  the  most  astonishing  revolution  in 
opinion  and  practice  the  world  has  ever  witnessed,  with  the  exception 
of  the  establishment  of  Christianity.  And  let  it  be  remembered,  that 
this  revolution  was  effected  solely  by  the  exhibition  of  truth,  and  by 
bold  and  persevering  appeals  to  the  conscience  and  understanding  of 
mankind.  No  miracles  have  wrought  conviction,  no  force  has  subdued 
opposition.  Public  opinion  was  gradually  enlightened  and  converted, 
and  then  roused  into  action,  and  with  resistless  energy  it  smote  to  the 
earth  a  stupendous  system  of  wickedness  and  cruelty. 

Surely  we  may  learn  from  this  history  a  very  different  lesson  from 
that  which  many  of  our  politicians  and  moralists  are  fond  of  inculcating, 
that  because  public  opinion  is  against  them,  therefore  abolitionists  should 
cease  to  do  well,  and  learn  to  do  evil —  should  abandon  their  opposition 
to  slavery  and  acquiesce  in  popular  iniquity.  Let  us  take  the  six 
Quakers  for  our  example,  and  resolve  to  persevere,  while  life  shall  be 
spared,  in  our  assaults  upon  slavery,  not  inquiring  how  many  are 
against  us,  knowing  assuredly  that  God  is  for  us.  But  should  the  advo 
cates  of  emancipation,  in  some  moment  of  weakness  or  of  trial,  be 
tempted  to  cast  a  desponding  and  inquiring  glance  over  the  field  of 
battle,  and  to  recall  to  his  recollection  the  events  of  the  campaign,  he 
will  see  nothing  in  the  array  of  hostile  forces  to  damp  his  courage,  nor 
in  the  review  of  the  past  to  lower  his  confidence  of  victory. 

The  great  object  proposed  by  the  friends  of  human  liberty,  so  far  as 
relates  to  the  Federal  Government,  is  the  abolition  of  slavery  within 
its  "  exclusive  jurisdiction."  But  we  have  been  given  to  understand,* 
that  "  the  immediate  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia 
is  utterly  impracticable."  That  the  present  administration  do  not  choose 
to  abolish  it,  is  not  more  true  than  that  the  British  Parliament  of  1 783  did 
not  choose  to  abolish  the  slave-trade ;  and  it  is  equally  true  that  the 

*  Public  letter  of  John  Quincy  Adams  of  2oth  May,  1839. 
19 


214  INTRODUCTION. 

abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  is  now  far  more  prob 
able  and  practicable  than  was  that  of  the  slave-trade  and  West  India 
slavery  at  the  formation  of  the  Quaker  committee.  But  why  is  the 
immediate  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  utterly  impracticable  ? 
"  Because  public  opinion  throughout  the  Union  is  against  it."  This  is 
a  good  reason  for  predicting  that  the  next  Congress  will  not  grant 
abolition,  but  not  why  the  friends  of  abolition  should  cease  their  efforts 
to  change  public  opinion,  in  order  that  a  future  Congress  may  grant 
what  we  know  the  next  will  refuse. 

In  many  respects  the  abolitionists  of  the  present  day  are  placed  in 
circumstances  similar  to  those  in  which  their  predecessors  found  them 
selves  in  1783.  They,  like  us,  had  to  contend  with  the  hostility  of  the 
Government,  with  the  interests  and  prejudices  of  slave-holders  in  the 
Legislature,*  with  clerical  defenders  of  cruelty  and  oppression,  with 
mercantile  cupidity,  and  with  heartless  politicians.  But  in  many  other 
respects  they  were  less  favored  than  we  are.  They  were  struggling 
against  the  spirit  of  the  age  ;  we  arc  cooperating  with  it.  They  were 
advancing  untried  theories;  we  can  point  to  the  West  Indies  and 
South  America  for  the  practical  and  successful  operation  of  our  doc 
trines.  They  were  striving  to  influence  a  government  in  a  great  degree 
independent  of  the  people ;  we  are  petitioning  a  government  that  is 
the  mere  creature  of  the  popular  will.  They  were  few  and  despised  ; 
the  hatred  and  persecution  we  have  experienced  attest  the  importance 
attributed  to  us.  They  were  without  political  influence ;  where  suffrage 
is  universal,  300,000  petitioners  will  not  be  overlooked  by  politicians. 
They  could  bring  their  facts  and  arguments  before  the  public  only  by 
hiring  a  space  in  the  columns  of  a  few  newspapers ;  we  have  numerous 
periodicals,  many  of  them  of  the  largest  size,  exclusively  devoted  to 
the  propagation  of  our  opinions,  while  many  religious  and  political 
journals  are  aiding  us  in  exhibiting  the  evils  of  slavery  and  the  advan 
tages  of  emancipation.  They  were  cheered  by  no  official  sanction  of 
their  efforts ;  we  are  encouraged  and  stimulated,  in  many  instances,  by 
the  approving  voice  of  the  representatives  of  the  people. 

We  ask  Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District ;  is  the  prayer 
presumptuous  or  unconstitutional  ?  If  so,  it  becomes  not  the  House 
of  Representatives  to  rebuke  us ;  for,  on  the  9th  of  January,  1829,  that 
body  "  Resolved  that  the  Committee  on  the  District  of  Columbia  be 
instructed  to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  providing  by  law  for  the 
gradual  abolition  of  slavery  within  the  District,  in  such  manner  that 
the  interests  of  no  individual  shall  be  injured  thereby."  Here  we  have 
the  solemn  admission  of  the  popular  and  most  numerous  branch  of  the 
Legislature,  that  the  question  of  abolition  is  one  of  expediency  alone, 
and  not  of  constitutional  power ;  and  that  slavery  may  be  terminated 
by  law,  without  injury  to  any  individual.  And  what  sentiments  on 
this  subject  have  been  uttered  by  the  State  Legislatures  ?  In  1828  the 
Legislature  of  PENNSYLVANIA  instructed  their  members  of  Congress 
"  to  procure,  if  practicable,  the  passage  of  a  law  to  abolish  slavery  in 

*  Many  of  the  Commoners  and  Lords  were  deeply  interested  in  West  In 
dian  plantations  ;  and  a  large  estate,  well  stocked  with  slaves,  was  held  by  a 
chartered  Society,  of  the  established  Church. 


INTRODUCTION.  215 

the  District  of  Columbia."  In  1829,  the  Assembly  of  NEW  YORK 
voted  to  direct  the  representatives  from  that  State  "  to  make  every 
proper  exertion  to  effect  the  passage  of  a  law  for  the  abolition  of  sla 
very  in  the  District  of  Columbia."  In  1837,  the  Senate  of  MASSA 
CHUSETTS  "  Resolved  that  Congress,  having  exclusive  legislation  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  possess  the  right  to  abolish  slavery  and  the 
slave-trade  therein,  and  that  the  early  exercise  of  such  right  is  de 
manded  by  the  enlightened  sentiment  of  the  civilized  world,  by  the 
principles  of  the  Revolution,  and  by  humanity."  The  other  House,  the 
same  session,  "  Resolved  that  Congress,  having  exclusive  legislation  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  possess  the  right  to  abolish  slavery  in  said 
District,  and  that  its  exercise  should  only  be  restrained  by  a  regard  to 
the  public  good."  The  next  session  both  branches  of  the  Legislature 
resolved  "  That  the  rights  of  justice,  the  claims  k  of  humanity,  and  the 
common  good  alike  demand  the  entire  suppression  of  the  slave-trade 
now  carried  on  in  the  District  of  Columbia."  In  1838,  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  Legislature  of  MAIXE  "  Resolved  that  the  con 
tinuance  of  slavery  within  the  sacred  enclosure  and  chosen  seat  of  the 
National  Government  is  inconsistent  with  a  due  regard  to  the  enlight 
ened  judgment  of  mankind,  and  with  all  just  pretensions  on  our  part 
to  the  character  of  a  free  people,  and  is  adapted  to  bring  into  contempt 
republican  liberty,  and  render  its  influence  powerless  throughout  the 
world."  The  same  year  the  Legislature  of  VERMONT,  without  a  dis 
senting  voice,  instructed  the  Representatives  in  Congress  "  to  use  their 
utmost  efforts  to  procure  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the  slave-trade 
in  the  District  of  Columbia."  Yet  there  are  those  who  would  fain 
paralyze  all  our  efforts  by  the  assurance  that  public  opinion  is  against 
us ! 

But  we  are  urged  to  desist,  not  only  because  our  object  is  impracti 
cable,  but  also  because  it  is  unlawful.  "  When  the  people,"  we  are 
told,  "  are  bound  by  laws  emanating  from  a  legislative  assembly  wherein 
they  have  no  representatives,  their  will  must  be  ascertained  by  mani 
festations  from  themselves."  But  why  ought  Congress  to  ascertain  the 
will  of  the  people  of  the  District  ?  Because  "  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence  derives  all  just  powers  of  the  Government  from  the  con 
sent  of  the  governed."  But  are  laws  binding  only  on  such  as  approve 
of  them  ?  No.  "  When  the  people  are  represented  in  the  legislative 
assembly,  the  consent  of  the  whole  must  be  inferred  from  the  voice  of 
the  representative  majority."  Now  it  so  happens  that  the  whole  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States,  by  the  voice  of  the  representative  majority, 
assented  to  the  provision  of  the  Constitution,  that  a  district,  ten  miles 
square,  should  be  placed  under  the  absolute  and  exclusive  jurisdiction 
of  Congress.  To  this  arrangement  the"  people  inhabiting  the  present 
District  gave  their  assent  through  their  representatives.  Afterwards, 
when  they  themselves  were  set  off,  by  the  Legislatures  of  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  to  be  the  subjects  of  this  exclusive  jurisdiction,  they,  through 
their  representatives  in  the  Legislatures,  consented  to  be  thus  placed 
under  the  authority  of  Congress.  And  shall  we  now  be  gravely  told, 
after  these  people  have  thus  consented  to  be  governed,  in  all  cases 
whatsoever,  by  the  National  Legislature,  and  after  the  people  of  the 
United  States  have,  for  this  purpose,  vested  unlimited  and  exclusive 


216  INTRODUCTION. 

jurisdiction  in  Congress,  that  it  is  contrary  to  the  principles  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  that  this  jurisdiction  should  secure  to 
each  inhabitant  of  the  District  the  "  inalienable  rights  of  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  ? "  Again,  if  the  Declaration  derives 
the  powers  of  the  government  from  the  consent  of  the  governed,  from 
what  representative  majority,  we  would  ask,  are  we  to  infer  the  consent 
of  six  thousand  of  the  people  of  the  District  to  be  reduced  to  chattels 
—  to  be  robbed  of  the  rights  of  humanity  —  to  be  converted,  with 
their  wives  and  children,  into  articles  of  merchandise  ? 

Surely  the  friends  of  emancipation  will  not,  after  their  past  expe 
rience,  look  upon  public  opinion  as  an  invincible  enemy  —  still  less  will 
they  believe  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  is  the  death-warrant 
of  human  rights  in  the  national  domain.  The  principles  for  which 
they  are  contending  are  the  principles  of  the  Declaration ;  the  means 
they  are  using  are  those  given  them  by  the  Constitution  —  freedom  of 
speech  and  of  the  press  —  petition  and  the  elective  franchise ;  and,  by 
the  blessing  of  God  on  these  principles  and  means,  they  will  yet  con 
vert  public  opinion  into  an  ally  —  will  yet  purge  the  capital  of  the 
Republic  of  its  loathsome  plague,  and  restore  the  Federal  Government 
to  its  legitimate  functions,  of  establishing  justice  and  securing  the  bless 
ings  of  liberty. 

Bedford,  September,  1839. 


A  VIEW  OF  THE  ACTION 


OF    THE 


GENERAL    GOVERNMENT 


OUR  Fathers,  in  forming  the  Federal  Constitution,  entered 
into  a  guilty  compromise  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  heavily 
is  their  sin  now  visited  upon  their  children.  By  that  instru 
ment,  the  continuance  of  the  African  slave-trade  was  guaranteed 
for  twenty  years  ; — a  larger  proportional  representation  in  Con 
gress,  and  a  larger  vote  in  the  election  of  the  Executive,  was 
accorded  to  the  slave-holding,  than  to  the  other  States : — the 
power  of  the  nation  was  pledged  to  keep  the  slave  in  subjec 
tion  ;  and  should  he  ever  escape  from  his  fetters,  his  master  was 
authorized  to  pursue  and  to  seize  him,  in  any  and  every  of  the 
sovereign  States  composing  our  wide-spread  confederacy. 

We  are  not  about  to  exhibit  the  corrupting  influence  of  this 
compact  on  the  religious  sympathies  and  sentiments  of  our 
countrymen,  in  regard  to  slavery  ;  nor  is  it  our  present  purpose 
to  trace  the  retributive  justice  of  Heaven  in  that  recklessness 
of  human  life,  and  in  that  contempt  of  human  and  divine  obli 
gations  which  are  hurrying  on  the  slave  States  to  anarchy  and 
barbarism ;  or  in  the  eagerness  so  generally  exhibited  by  our 
northern  politicians  and  merchants,  to  barter  the  constitutional 

19* 


218  JAY'S  WORKS. 

rights  of  themselves  and  their  fellow-citizens,  for  the  votes  and 
the  trade  of  the  South.* 

We  propose  simply  to  take  a  view  of  the  action  of  the  Fed 
eral  Government  in  behalf  of  slavery, — a  subject  that  has  yet 
been  but  partially  investigated ;  and  we  flatter  ourselves  that  in 
the  course  of  our  inquiries  we  shall  develop  facts  which,  with 
some  at  least  of  our  readers,  will  possess  the  merit  of  novelty. 
These  facts,  for  the  most  part,  derive  their  origin  from 

THE  FEDERAL  RATIO  OF  REPRESENTATION. 

The  Constitution  provides  that  the  members  of  the  Lower 
House  of  Congress  shall  be  proportioned  to  the  free  inhabitants 
of  the  States  they  represent,  except  that  in  each  State  three-fifths 
of  the  slave  population  shall  be  for  this  purpose  considered  as  free 
inhabitants.  In  other  words,  every  five  slaves  are  to  be  counted 
as  three  white  persons.  For  example,  if  by  law  every-  60,000 
free  inhabitants  may  elect  a  representative,  a  district  containing 
45,000  whites  and  25,000  slaves,  becomes  by  the  federal  ratio 
entitled  to  a  member.  This  stipulation  in  the  Constitution  has  from 
the  beginning  given  the  slave-holders  an  undue  weight  in  the  na 
tional  councils.  A  few  instances  will  illustrate  its  practical  effect. 
The  whole  number  of  the  House  of  Representatives  is  at  pre 
sent  242 — sent  from  26  States.  Of  these,  the  following  are 
slave  States,  viz. : — Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Caro 
lina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Alabama, 

*  Before  this  language  is  condemned  as  harsh,  and  exaggerated,  we  beg  the 
reader  to  recall  some  of  the  prominent  events  of  the  last  few  years,  con 
nected  with  this  subject, —  the  Lynch  clubs  and  cruel  inflictions  of  the 
South — the  sacking  of  the  Charleston  post-office — the  wholesale  and  unpun 
ished  murders  at  Vicksburg — and  the  frequent  burnings  alive  of  negroes, 
and  in  particular  of  Mclntosh,  taken  by  the  citizens  of  St.  Louis  from  the 
prison,  chained  to  a  tree,  and  consumed  by  a  slow  fire — and  the  advice  of 
Judge  Lawless  to  the  Grand  Jury,  not  to  notice  the  diabolical  atrocity, 
because  it  was,  in  fact,  the  act  of  the  community!  As  to  the  North,  we 
point  in  our  justification  to  the  innumerable  mobs  excited  by  politicians 
against  the  friends  of  emancipation — the  various  attempts  made  by  the  State 
authorities  to  propitiate  the  South  by  a  surrender  of  the  freedom  of  speech 
and  of  the  press — to  the  zeal  of  the  merchants  in  our  seaports  in  getting  up 
anti-abolition  meetings — to  the  conflagration  of  Pennsylvania  Hall,  and  to 
the  martyrdom  of  Lovejoy.  In  truth,  our  whole  land  is  strowed  with  monu 
ments  of  the  wickedness  and  tyranny  of  slavery — monuments  which  declare, 
in  no  doubtful  language,  that  our  common  national  sin  is  not  unheeded  by 
HIM  to  whom  vengeance  belongeth. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       219 

Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Missouri  and  Arkansas.  These  States 
with  a  free  population  of  3,823,389,  have  100  members  ;  while 
the  free  States,  with  a  free  population  nearly  double,  viz.,  7,003,- 
451,  have  only  142  members.  One  representative  is  at  present 
allowed  to  47,700  inhabitants.  Now  were  the  slaves  omitted  in 
the  enumeration,  the  slave  States  would  have  only  75  members. 
Hence  it  follows,  that  at  the  present  moment,  the  slave-holding 
interest  has  a  representation  of  TWENTY-FIVE  members  in 
addition  to  the  fair  and  equal  representation  of  the  free  inhabi 
tants.  There  is  certainly  no  good  reason  why  the  owners  of 
human  chattels  should,  by  the  fundamental  law  of  a  Republic, 
have  greater  privileges  awarded  to  them  than  to  the  holders  of 
any  other  kind  of  property  whatever.  But  such  is  the  compact ; 
we  seek  not  to  change  or  violate  it,  but  only  to  explain  its  oper 
ation. 

Each  State  has  as  many  votes  for  President  as  it  has  mem 
bers  of  Congress.  The  rule  of  representation  in  the  Lower 
House  has  already  been  explained ;  in  the  Senate  it  is  different 
and  each  State,  whatever  be  its  population,  has  two  senators? 
and  no  more.  The  free  population  of  the  slave  States,  as  al 
ready  stated,  is  half  that  of  the  others ;  but  their  number  being 
equal,  their  representation  in  the  Senate  is  also  equal. 

If  free  population  were  the  principle  of  representation  in  the 
Federal  Government,  as  it  is  with  scarcely  an  exception  in  aU 
the  States,  the  slave  States  would  have, 

In  the  Senate, 13  members. 

In  the  House, 75 

Electoral  votes  for  president, 88 

They  have,  In  the  Senate, 26  members. 

In  the  House, 100 

Electoral  votes  for  President, 126 

Here  we  find  the  secret  of  the  power  of  the  South,  and  of  the 
obsequiousness  of  the  North.  Ohio,  with  a  population  of  947,- 
000,  has  19  members;  while  Virginia,  with  a  free  population  of 
200,000  LESS,  has  two  members  MORE.  Take  another  example. 
Pennsylvania  has  30  electoral  votes ;  the  States  of  South  Caro- 


JAY'S  WORKS. 

lina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Kentucky, 
with  an  aggregate  free  population  of  189,791  less  than  Pennsyl 
vania,  have  53  electoral  votes  ! 

It  cannot  be  supposed  that  this  vast  and  most  unequal  represen 
tation  and  consequent  political  power  will  be  unemployed  by  its 
possessors.  On  the  contrary,  the  slave-holders  in  Congress  have 
uniformly  succeeded  in  effecting  their  objects,  when  united  among 
themselves.  In  1836,  this  slave-power  in  Congress  was  adroitly 
turned  to  pecuniary  profit.  The  Surplus  Revenue  remaining  in 
the  Treasury  on  the  1st  of  January,  1837,  was  to  be  distributed, 
and  the  rule  of  distribution  became  a  question.  The  income,  it 
is  true,  had  been  derived  chiefly  from  the  industry  and  enterprise 
of  the  North ;  but  the  South  insisted,  and  with  her  usual  success, 
that  instead  of  dividing  the  money  according  to  population,  it 
should  be  apportioned  among  the  States  according  to  their 
electoral  votes.  By  this  rule,  the  slave  States,  notwithstanding 
their  inferiority  in  population,  would  share  alike  with  the  free, 
so  far  as  regarded  the  number  of  their  senators  ;  and  with  regard 
to  their  representatives,  they  would  secure  an  apportionment  of 
money  on  account  of  three-fifths  of  their  two  millions  of  slaves. 

The  sum  allotted  by  this  gross  and  monstrous  rule  to  the 
States  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louis 
iana,  and  Kentucky,  was  $6,754,588  ;  while  Pennsylvania,  with 
a  free  population  larger  than  that  of  all  these  six  States  together, 
was  to  receive  only  $3,823,353 ;  so  that,  in  fact,  the  slave-hold 
ers  of  these  States  received,  man  for  man,  just  about  twice  as 
many  dollars  from  the  national  treasury  as  the  hard-working 
citizens  of  Pennsylvania ! 

Notwithstanding  this  slave  representation,  the  free  States 
have  a  majority  of  members  ;  and  hence  it  becomes  important 
to  investigate 

THE     SOURCES     OF     THE     SLAVE-HOLDING    INFLUENCE    IN 
CONGRESS. 

These  may  be  regarded  as  threefold  :  First,  their  anxiety  to 
protect  and  perpetuate  slavery  renders  the  Southern  members 
united  in  whatever  measures  they  consider  important  for  this 
purpose,  while  the  representatives  from  the  North,  having  no 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       221 

common  bond  of  union,  are  divided  in  opinion  and  effort.  Sec 
ondly,  a  slave  State,  having  more  votes  to  bestow  on  a  presiden 
tial  candidate,  and  more  members  in  Congress  to  support  or 
oppose  the  administration  than  a  free  State  of  equal  white  pop 
ulation,  is  of  course  of  greater  consequence  in  the  estimation  of 
politicians ;  and  hence  arises  an  influence  reaching  to  every 
measure,  and  weighing  upon  every  question.  Thirdly,  the 
peculiar  temperament  of  the  Southern  gentlemen,  together  with 
their  observation  of  the  servility  of  the  Northern  politicians, 
has  induced  them  to  resort,  and  with  great  success,  to  INTIMIDA 
TION  as  a  means  of  influence. 

The  practice  adopted  by  the  slave-holders  of  threatening  on 
all  occasions  to  dissolve  the  Union,  unless  they  are  permitted  to 
govern  it,  has  been  too  long  and  firmly  established  to  need 
illustration.  We  will  at  present  merely  give  a  few  recent 
instances  of  outrageous  menaces ;  and  to  justify  what  we  have 
said  of  the  servility  of  Northern  politicians,  it  is  sufficient  to 
observe,  that  these  menaces  were  unrebuked. 

On  the  18th  of  April,  1836,  a  petition  against  the  continuance 
of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  was  presented  to  the 
House  of  Representatives,  when  Mr.  SPEIGHT,  of  North  Car 
olina,  declared  in  his  place,  that  "  he  had  great  respect  for  the 
chair  as  an  officer  of  the  House,  and  a  great  respect  for  him 
personally;  and  nothing  but  that  respect  prevented  him  from 
rushing  to  the  table  and  tearing  that  petition  to  pieces."  Of 
course  it  was  to  be  understood  that  the  order  of  the  House  and 
the  rights  of  Northern  petitioners  were  respected,  not  from  any 
constitutional  obligations,  but  solely  because  the  speaker,  himself 
a  slave-holder,  was  acceptable  to  Southern  gentlemen. 

Mr.  HAMMOND,  of  South  Carolina,  the  same  session,  in  a 
speech,  used  the  following  language  :  "  I  warn  the  abolitionists, 
ignorant,  infatuated  barbarians  as  they  are,  that  if  chance  shall 
throw  any  of  them  into  our  hand's,  he  may  expect  a  felon's 
death." 

Mr.  LUMPKIN  remarked  in  the  Senate,  (January,  1838,)  "If 
abolitionists  went  to  Georgia,  they  would  be  caught ;  "  and  Mr. 
PRESTON  declared  in  the  same  debate  —  "  Let  an  abolitionist 


222  JAY'S  WORKS. 

come  within  the  borders  of  South  Carolina,  if  we  can  catch  him, 
we  will  try  him,  and  notwithstanding  all  the  interference  of  all 
the  governments  on  earth,  including  the  Federal  Government, 
we  will  HANG  him."  * 

It  seems  probable  from  these  declarations  that  abolitionists,  in 
their  Southern  travels,  will  meet  with  "  barbarians  "  quite  as 
"  ignorant  and  infatuated "  as  themselves  :  and  also  that  the 
gibbet  is  to  be  the  fate  of  any  member  of  Congress,  who  shall  by 
his  votes  or  speeches  dare  to  identify  himself  with  the  abolition 
ists,  and  afterwards  enter  the  slave-region. 

Such  are  the  sources  of  the  slave-holding  influence  in  Con 
gress.  The  following  pages  will  exhibit  many  of  the  results  of 
this  influence,  and  the  first  to  which  the  reader's  attention  is 
called,  is 

THE    OBSEQUIOUSNESS    OF    THE   PRESIDENTIAL    CANDIDATES. 

As  slave-holders  are  ready  to  hang  abolitionists  when  they 
can  "  catch  "  them,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  they  will  elect 
any  of  the  proscribed  sect  President  of  the  United  States.  Of 
course,  it  becomes  important  for  such  gentlemen  as  aspire  to  that 
honor,  that  their  ideas  on  the  subject  of  human  rights  should  be 
adapted  to  the  meridian  of  the  slave-region. 

Previous  to  the  last  presidential  canvass,  Mr.  VAN  BUREN, 
being  a  candidate,  thought  it  prudent  to  write  a  letter  for  publi 
cation,  containing  the  following  passage  : 

"  I  prefer  that  not  only  you,  but  all  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
shall  now  understand,  that  if  the  desire  of  that  portion  of  them  which  is 
favorable  to  my  election  to  the  chief  magistracy  should  be  gratified,  I 
must  go  into  the  presidential  chair  the  inflexible  and  uncompromising 
opponent  of  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  against  the  wishes  of  the  slave-holding  Stales." 

Wr.  WHITE  was  a  rival  candidate,  and  deemed  it  expedient  to 
give  his  pledge  also,  which  ne  did  in  these  terms  : 

"  I  do  not  believe  Congress  has  the  power  to  abolish  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia ;  and  if  that  body  did  possess  the  power,  I  think 

*  Yet  this  Carolina  Senator,  who  is  thus  ready  to  sanction  wholesale  mur 
der  for  opinion's  sake,  in  defiance  "  of  all  the  governments  on  earth,"  and 
the  government  in  heaven,  too,  has  been  nominated  for  the  office  of  Vice 
President  of  the  United  States,  by  the  WHIG  party,  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  a 
party  professing  great  attachment  to  the  cause  of  constitutional  liberty ! 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       223 

the  exercise  of  it  would  be  the  very  worst  policy.  Holding  these  opinions, 
I  would  act  on  them  in  any  situation  in  which  I  could  be  placed,  and 
for  both  reasons  would,  if  called  on  to  act,  withhold  my  assent  to  any  bill 
having  in  view  such  an  object" 

GENERAL  HARRISON,  a  third  candidate,  also,  as  we  have 
understood,  wrote  his  letter,  but  not  having  it  before  us  we  cannot 
quote  it.  We  presume,  however,  it  was  thought  sufficient,  since 
an  address  in  his  behalf  from  his  political  friends  in  Virginia, 
assured  the  public  that  "  he  is  sound  to  the  core  on  the  subject  of 
slavery" 

Mr.  WEBSTER,  the  fourth  and  last  candidate,  had  many  years 
before  fully  committed  himself  as  to  the  power  of  Congress  over 
slavery  in  the  District.  He  gave  no  pledge,  and  received  no 
vote  from  any  slave  State. 

Another  presidential  election  is  approaching,  and  Mr.  CLAY 
is  announced  as  the  opposing  candidate  to  the  present  incumbent. 
This  gentleman's  position  with  regard  to  human  rights,  has  been 
deemed  at  the  South  equivocal  and  unsatisfactory.  It  is  true  he 
is  a  slave-holder,  and  although  for  more  than  twenty  years  an 
officer,  and  now  the  President  of  the  Colonization  Society,  he 
has  refrained  from  availing  himself  of  the  opportunities  he  has 
possessed  of  manumitting  his  slaves,  and  permitting  them  to  enjoy 
in  Africa  the  liberty  which  he  insists  it  would  be  dangerous  to 
allow  them  in  America.  Still  his  language  and  professions,  in 
relation  to  the  "delicate  subject,"  have  been  indiscreet.  In 
1827,  he  maintained  in  a  public  speech  the  right  and  policy  of 
the  Federal  Government  to  aid  the  Colonization  Society,  and 
insisted  that  the  annual  increase  of  the  colored  population,  bond 
and  free,  namely  52,000,  might  be  transported  to  Africa. 

"  If,"  said  the  orator,  "  I  could  be  instrumental  in  eradicating  this 
deepest  stain  (slavery)  upon  the  character  of  our  country,  and  removing 
all  cause  for  reproach  on  account  of  it  by  foreign  nations  —  if  I  could 
only  be  instrumental  in  ridding  of  this  foul  blot,  that  revered  State 
(Virginia)  that  gave  me  birth  —  or  that  not  less  beloved  State  (Ken 
tucky)  which  kindly  adopted  me  as  her  son,  I  would  not  exchange  the 
proud  satisfaction  which  I  should  enjoy  for  all  the  honor  of  all  the  tri 
umphs  ever  decreed  to  the  most  successful  conqueror.* 

*  Speech  before  the  American  Colonization  Society.    Wth  Rep.,  p.  12. 


224  JAY'S  WORKS. 

In  the  same  speech  he  remarked,  in  reference  to  such  as  ob 
jected  to  the  agitation  of  the  slavery  question,  — 

"  If  they  would  repress  all  tendencies  towards  liberty  and  ultimate 
emancipation,  they  must  do  more  than  put  down  the  benevolent  efforts 
of  this  Society.  They  must  go  back  to  the  era  of  our  liberty  and  inde 
pendence,  and  muzzle  the  cannon  which  thunders  its  annual  joyous 
return.  They  must  revive  the  slave-trade,  with  all  its  train  of  atroci 
ties.  They  must  suppress  the  workings  of  British  philanthropy,  seeking 
to  meliorate  the  condition  of  the  unfortunate  West  India  slaves.  They 
must  arrest  the  career  of  South  American  deliverance  from  thraldom. 
They  must  blow  out  the  moral  lights  around  us,  and  extinguish  the 
greatest  torch  of  all  which  America  presents  to  a  benighted  world, 
pointing  the  way  to  their  rights,  their  liberties  and  their  happiness. 
They  must  penetrate  the  human  soul,  and  eradicate  the  light  of  reason 
and  the  love  of  liberty.  Then,  and  not  till  then,  wlien  universal  dark 
ness  and  despair  prevail,  can  you  PERPETUATE  SLAVERY,  and  repress 
all  sympathies  and  all  humane  and  benevolent  efforts  among  freemen,  in 
behalf  of  the  unhappy  portions  of  our  race  who  are  doomed  to  bondage." 

It  is  not  surprising  that  such  sentiments  should  excite  distrust 
of  Mr.  Clay  at  the  South ;  a  distrust  by  no  means  likely  to  be 
dissipated  by  the  following  extract  from  "  The  Life  of  the  Hon. 
Henry  Clay,  by  George  G.  Prentiss,"  published  some  years 
since,  —  an  extract  which  has  been  zealously  circulated  of  late 
by  Southern  papers,  devoted  to  the  support  of  Northern  men  with 
Southern  principles. 

"  The  commencement  of  Mr.  CLAY'S  political  career  may  be  dated 
as  far  back  as  the  year  1797,  —  a  period  at  which  he  had  scarcely  be 
gun  the  practice  of  law.  The  people  of  Kentucky  were  then  about  to 
elect  a  convention  to  frame  a  new  constitution  for  the  State.  And  one 
feature  -of  the  plan  which  had  been  submitted  to  them  was  a  provision 
for  the  final  emancipation  of  the  slave  population.  The  strongest  pre 
judices  of  a  majority  of  the  people,  in  every  part  of  the  State,  were 
arraigned  against  this  measure,  and  MR.  CLAY  was  aware  of  the 
fact;  his  SENTIMENTS  and  his  FEELINGS  were  on  the  side  of 
EMANCIPATION ;  and  without  taking  a  moment's  heed  to  his  pop 
ularity,  he  entered  into  the  defence  of  his  FAVORITE  POLICY, 
with  all  the  deep  and  unquenchable  ardor  of  his  nature.  His  vigorous 
pen  was  busy  in  the  public  journals,  and  his  eloquent  voice  was  raised 
in  almost  every  assemblage,  in  favor  of  the  election  of  men  to  the  con 
vention  who  would  contend  for  the  ERADICATION  OF  SLA 
VERY.  A  conviction  of  the  expediency  and  necessity  of  EMAN 
CIPATION  has  been  spreading  farther  and  farther  among  our  coun 
trymen,  and  taking  deeper  and  deeper  root  in  their  minds,  and  it 
requires  not  the  spirit  of  prophecy  to  foretell  the  END.  This  rapid 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.        225 

and  continued  triumph  of  the  PRINCIPLES,  of  which  it  was  the 
object  of  MR.  CLAY'S  first  political  labors  to  establish,  may  well  be 
a  source  of  pride  to  him  and  honest  exultation  to  his  friends." 

Mr.  Clay's  course  in  Congress  had,  moreover,  not  been  satis 
factory  to  the  slave-party.  He  had  not  advocated  the  annexation 
of  Texas  —  he  had  not  denied  the  constitutional  power  of  Congress 
to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  —  he  had  expressed  himself  in 
favor  of  receiving  abolition  petitions  —  and,  above  all,  he  had 
voted  against  Mr.  Calhoun's  bill  establishing  a  censorship  of  the 
press ;  a  bill  which  received  the  sanction  of  Mr.  Van  Buren 
and  his  partisans,  the  two  New  York  senators,  Messrs.  Wright 
and  Tallmadge. 

The  administration  party  at  the  South  were  making  great  use 
of  all  these  circumstances  against  Mr.  Clay,  and  it  became 
obvious  that  unless  he  could  conciliate  the  slave-holders,  he  had 
little  prospect  of  success. 

The  Mobile  "  Commercial  Register  "  thus  announced  the  de 
mand  of  the  South  : 

"  We  must  do  by  Mr.  Clay  as  the  South  have  done  by  Mr.  Van 
Buren  —  leave  him  not  an  inch  of  neutral  ground  to  stand  upon  be 
tween  the  South  and  the  fanatics.  We  must  push  him  as  far  as  Mr. 
Van  Buren  was  pushed.  The  southern  safety  demands  it.  He  must 
measure  the  whole  length,  and  walk  altogether  off  the  middle  neutral 
ground  which  he  occupies,  OR  THE  SOUTH  WILL  REJECT  AND  SPURN 
HIM." 

In  this  state  of  things,  a  petition  from  some  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  District  against  abolition  was  put  into  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Clay,  and  he  determined  to  make  such  a  use  of  it  as  might  save 
him  from  being  rejected  and  spurned  by  the  South.  Accordingly, 
a  SPEECH  in  support  of  the  petitions  was  prepared,  submitted  to 
the  consideration  of  his  friends,  and  finally  delivered  in  the  Sen 
ate  of  the  United  States  on  the  7th  of  February,  1839.  In  this 
memorable  document  he  vindicates  the  Senate  from  all  inten 
tional  violation  of  the  right  of  petition  in  their  mode  of  disposing 
of  the  abolition  petitions  —  he  declares  himself  "  irresistibly 
impelled  to  do  whatever  is  in  his  power  to  dissuade  the  public 
from  continuing  to  agitate  a  subject  fraught  with  the  most  dire- 
20 


226  JAY'S  WORKS. 

ful  consequences."  He  distinguishes  the  abolitionists  from  those 
who  are  content  to  keep  their  conscientious  objections  against 
slavery  to  themselves,  and  from  those  who  think  the  constitu 
tional  right  of  petition  has  been  invaded  by  Congress ;  and  then 
draws  a  false  and  distorted  picture  of  those  whom  he  pleases  to 
term  "  the  real  ultra  abolitionists."  With  these  men,  he  tells 
us,  "  the  deficiency  of  the  power  of  the  General  Government  is 
nothing  —  the  acknowledged  and  incontestable  powers  of  the 
States  are  nothing  —  civil  war,  and  dissolution  of  the  Union, 
and  the  overthrow  of  a  government,  in  which  are  concentrated 
the  fondest  hopes  of  the  civilized  world,  are  nothing."  That  it 
may  not  be  supposed  he  now  rejoices  in  "  the  working  of  British 
philanthropy,"  he  declares,  "  if  the  British  Parliament  treated 
the  West  India  slaves  as  freemen,  it  also  treated  West  India 
freemen  as  SLAVES."  Daniel  O'Connell,  on  account  of  his 
indignant  rebukes  of  American  slavery,  is  denounced  by  the 
Kentucky  senator,  as  "  the  plunderer  of  his  own  country,  and 
the  libeller  of  a  foreign  and  kindred  people."  He  then  turns  to 
the  District  of  Columbia,  and  in  this  focus  of  the  American 
slave-trade,  and  slave-ships,  and  slave-prisons,  and  slave-comes, 
and  slave-auctions,  he  asserts  that  slavery  "  exists  here  in  the 
mildest  and  most  mitigated  form,"  and  he  argues  that  Congress 
cannot  rightfully  abolish  it.  On  the  American  slave-trade, 
he  is  very  explicit  and  logical :  "  I  deny  that  the  General  Gov 
ernment  has  any  authority  whatever  from  the  Constitution  to 
abolish  what  is  called  the  slave-trade,  or,  in  other  words,  to  pro 
hibit  the  removal  of  slaves  from  one  slave  State  to  another  slave 
State.  The  grant  in  the  Constitution "  (of  power  to  Congress 
to  regulate  commerce  between  the  States)  "  is  of  a  power  of 
regulation,  and  not  prohibition."  Mr.  Clay's  perception  of 
the  distinction  between  regulation  and  prohibition,  was  not  so 
clear  before  he  became  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  In  an 
address  he  made  to  the  Kentucky  Colonization  Society  in  1829, 
after  calling  the  African  slave-trade  "the  most  abominable  traf 
fic  that  ever  disgraced  the  annals  of  the  human  race,"  he  alluded 
to  the  act  of  Congress  prohibiting  it,  and  remarked,  "  on  the  2d 
of  March,  1807,  the  act  was  passed,  for  which  it  was  my  happy 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       227 

lot  to  vote."  "  The  grant  in  the  Constitution,"  under  which  Mr. 
Clay  voted  for  the  act  prohibiting  the  trade,  was  that  of  power 
to  Congress  "  to  regulate  foreign  commerce." 

As  if  to  apologize  for  having  in  his  youthful  days  advocated 
emancipation  in  Kentucky,  he  refers  in  his  speech  to  the  incon 
siderable  number  of  slaves  then  in  the  State  :  "  but,"  he  adds, 
"  if  I  had  been  then,  or  were  NOW,  a  citizen  of  any  of  the 
planting  States  —  the  Southern  or  Southwestern  States  —  I 
should  have  opposed,  and  would  continue  to  oppose,  any  scheme 
whatever  of  emancipation,  GRADUAL  or  IMMEDIATE." 
In  1797,  Mr.  Clay  was  anxious  that  the  Kentucky  Convention 
should  take  measures  "for  the  eradication  of  slavery."  In  1838, 
a  law  was  passed  submitting  to  the  people  the  expediency  of 
calling  another  convention.  Mr.  Clay  avows  that,  "  emancipa 
tion  had  its  influence  "  in  procuring  the  passage  of  this  law ;  but 
in  regard  to  the  proposed  convention,  by  which  his  early  wishes 
might  have  been  consummated,  he  tells  us,  "I felt  myself  con 
strained  to  take  immediate,  bold,  and  decided  ground  against  it !  " 
Yet  this  is  the  man  who,  a  few  years  since,  would  not  exchange 
the  satisfaction  of  being  instrumental  in  eradicating  slavery  from 
his  country,  "  for  all  the  honor  of  all  the  triumphs  ever  decreed 
to  the  most  successful  conqueror ! "  Verily,  slavery  has  achieved 
a  triumph  that  attests  its  withering  power  over  exalted  genius 
and  high  and  generous  aspirations,  —  a  triumph  for  which  hu 
manity  must  weep,  and  patriotism  blush. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  investigate  the  direct  action  of  the 
Federal  Government  in  behalf  of  slavery;  and  commencing 
with  appointments  to  office,  we  will  proceed  to  trace  this  action, 
first,  in  laws  and  measures  of  a  local  and  private  nature,  and 
then  in  attempts  to  promote  the  general  interests  and  perpetuity 
of  the  institution. 

APPOINTMENTS    TO    OFFICE. 

As  the  citizens  of  the  free  States  are  nearly  double  in  number 
to  those  of  the  slave  States,  it  might  naturally  be  supposed  that 
the  former  would  furnish  the  larger  share  of  the  great  officers 
of  the  Union.  To  such  as  have  indulged  this  supposition,  the 


228  JAY'S  WORKS. 

following  extract  from  a  speech  lately  delivered  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States,  by  Mr.  Davis  of  Massachusetts,  will  no  doubt 
afford  very  startling  information. 

"  This  interest  (slavery)  has  ruled  the  destinies  of  the  republic. 
For  FORTY  out  of  FORTY-EIGHT  years,  it  has  given  us  a  President 
from  its  own  territory  and  of  its  own  selection.  During  all  this  time, 
it  has  not  only  had  a  President,  sustaining  its  own  peculiar  views  of 
public  policy,  but  through  him,  has  held  and  used  in  its  own  way,  the 
•whole  organization  of  all  the  departments,  and  all  the  vast  and  con 
trolling  patronage  incident  to  that  office,  to  aid  it  in  carrying  on  its 
views  and  policy,  as  well  as  to  protect  and  secure  to  it  every  advantage. 

"  Let  us  explore  a  little  further  and  see  how  the  Houses  of  Congress 
have  been  organized.  For  THIRTY  years  out  of  THIRTY-SIX,  that 
interest  has  placed  its  own  speaker  in  the  chair  of  the  other  House, 
thus  securing  the  organization  of  committees,  and  the  great  influence 
of  that  station.  And,  sir,  while  all  other  interests  have,  during  part  of 
the  time,  had  the  chair  (vice  presidency)  in  which  you  preside  assigned 
to  them  as  an  equivalent  for  these  great  concessions,  yet  in  each 
year,  when  a  President  pro  tern,  is  elected,  who  upon  the  contingencies 
mentioned  in  the  Constitution  will  be  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
that  interest  has  INVARIABLY  given  us  that  office.  Look,  I  beseech 
you,  through  all  the  places  of  honor,  of  profit,  and  privilege ;  and 
there  you  will  find  the  representatives  of  this  interest  in  numbers  that 
indicate  its  influence.  Does  not,  then,  this  interest  rule,  guide,  and 
adapt  public  policy  to  its  own  views,  and  fit  it  to  suit  the  action  and 
products  of  its  own  labor  ?  " 

Let  us  see  how  far  the  present  amount  of  slave  interest  in  the 
Federal  Government  justifies  the  general  statement  made  by 
Mr.  Davis.  The  presidential  chair,  it  is  true,  is  filled  by  a 
northern  man ;  but  he  is  one  who  pledged  himself  to  this  inter 
est  before  he  was  elected ;  who  had  manifested  his  devotion  to 
this  interest,  by  giving  his  vote  for  a  censorship  of  the  press, 
for  the  avowed  purpose  of  restraining  the  circulation  of  anti- 
slavery  papers  ;  and  who  was  elected  to  his  present  station  by 
southern  votes  !  Be  it  recollected,  moreover,  that  the  southern 
journals  have  insisted  that  a  northern  man  with  southern  princi 
ples,  could  more  effectually  subserve  this  interest  as  President, 
than  a  slave-holder. 

In  the  office  of  Vice  President,  we  have  a  slave-holder  from 
Kentucky,  presiding  over  the  deliberations  of  the  Senate. 

A  slave-holder  is  seated  in  the  chair  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  appointing  committees  on  the  District  of  Columbia, 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       229 

enforcing  gag  resolutions  against  such  as  would  repeal  or  modify 
the  laws  of  Congress  violating  the  rights  of  man,  and  deciding 
all  questions  of  order  in  discussions  bearing  upon  the  GREAT 

INTEREST. 

A  desire  is  now  manifested  by  the  South  to  bring  into  the  Su 
preme  Court  of  the  United  States  certain  questions  touching  the 
rights  and  duties  of  the  free  States,  relative  to  slaves  who  may 
come  or  be  brought  within  their  limits.  Since  the  year  1830 
there  have  been  FIVE  appointments  to  the  bench  of  this  court, 
and  ALL  from  slave  States.  The  majority  of  the  court,  including 
the  Chief  Justice,  are  citizens  of  those  States.  But  when 
these  questions  come  before  the  court,  it  may  be  highly  impor 
tant  for  the  slave-holders  to  have  an  ATTORNEY  GENERAL  to 
argue  them,  in  whom  they  can  confide.  Accordingly  the  office 
is  filled  by  Mr.  GRUNDY,  who  lately  evinced  his  qualifications 
for  the  station,  by  expressing  in  his  place  as  Senator  from  Ten 
nessee,  his  approbation  of  LYNCH  LAW,  as  applied  to  abolition 
ists.  At  the  head  of  the  department  of  STATE,  whence  issue 
instructions  for  conventions  and  treaties,  protecting  the  African 
slave-trade  from  British  cruisers,  and  the  American  slave-trade 
from  the  interference  of  British  colonial  authorities,  and  also  for 
conventions  for  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves,  is  placed  a  gentle 
man  from  GEORGIA. 

At  the  court  of  Great  Britain  we  are  represented  by  a  slave 
holder  from  Virginia,  who,  under  the  direction  of  the  gentleman 
from  Georgia,  is  bargaining  about  the  value  of  shipwrecked 
negroes,  and  threatening  the  British  government  with  the  ven 
geance  of  the  Republic,  if  it  shall  hereafter  dare  to  liberate 
slaves  who  may  be  forced  into  its  colonies. 

At  the  head  of  the  NAVY  DEPARTMENT  we  behold  a  citizen 
of  the  North,  enjoying  the  reward  of  his  labor,  in  concocting 
one  of  the  most  virulent  volumes  in  vindication  of  slavery,  and 
vituperation  of  its  opponents,  that  has  ever  issued  from  the 
press. 

A  slave-holder  from  SOUTH  CAROLINA,  distinguished  for  his 
negotiation  in  Mexico  for  the  surrender  of  fugitive  slaves,  pre 
sides  over  the  WAR  DEPARTMENT. 


230  JAY'S  WORKS. 

KENTUCKY  furnishes  a  POSTMASTER-GENERAL  whose  devo 
tion  to  the  "  interest "  had  led  him  to  authorize  every  Post 
master  to  act  as  censor  of  the  press,  and  to  take  from  the  mails 
every  paper  adverse  to  slavery.  Thus  have  the  slave-holders 
seized  upon  the  Federal  Government,  and  converted,  as  we  shall 
presently  see,  what  was  intended  as  the  palladium  of  liberty, 
into  the  shield  of  despotism. 

THE  FEDERAL    GOVERNMENT  AND    THE    TERRITORIAL  LAWS  OF 
FLORIDA. 

By  the  Constitution,  Congress  has  "  power  to  dispose  of  and 
make  all  needful  regulations  respecting  the  territory  belonging 
to  the  United  States."  Under  this  provision  the  territorial  legis 
latures  are  permitted  to  enact  laws  which  are  in  force  till  abro 
gated  by  Congress,  and  that  body  legislates  directly  for  the 
territories  whenever  it  thinks  proper.  Hence  it  is  morally 
responsible  for  the  territorial  legislation. 

On  the  llth  of  February,  1834,  Messrs.  J.  &  M.  Garnett  and 
Maria  Garnett,  all  of  Virginia,  presented  a  petition  to  Congress, 
setting  forth  that  they  were  the  owners  of  certain  slaves  whom 
they  hired  to  persons  in  Florida  ;  and  that  by  a  law  of  the  terri 
tory  a  tax  of  ten  dollars  was  imposed  on  every  slave  owned  by  a 
non-resident ;  and  they  prayed  Congress  to  relieve  them  from 
the  payment  of  this  tax.  It  was  obvious  that  this  tax  tended  to 
discourage  slave-holders  from  sending  their  slaves  into  Florida 
and  there  hiring  them  at  high  rates  to  the  new  settlers,  who  had 
not  capital  enough  immediately  to  stock  their  plantations.  Con 
gress,  without  hesitation,  abolished  the  tax.  The  law  thus  an 
nulled  was  not  in  itself  revolting  to  justice  or  humanity.  But 
there  was  then,  and  still  is,  a  law  of  Florida  of  a  very  different 
character. 

On  the  4th  of  February,  1832,  it  was  enacted  that  whenever 
a  judgment  for  debt  was  recovered  in  the  territory  against  a  free 
negro  or  mulatto,  and  the  judgment  was  not  satisfied  in  jftve 
days,  the  debtor  should  be  SOLD  at  auction  to  pay  the  judgment. 
Imprisonment  for  debt  is  now  deemed  a  relic  of  barbarism,  but 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       231 

here  we  have  an  instance  of  insolvent  debtors  being  SOLD  for 
the  benefit  of  their  creditors,  virtually  by  the  authority,  and 
directly  with  the  sanction  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  ! 
The  practical  operation  of  this  law  is  to  convert  free  negroes 
into  slaves.  A  recent  sale  under  it  will  illustrate  its  character. 
Within  a  few  months  a  free  negro  was  sold  at  Appalachicola  for 
TEN  years,  to  satisfy  a  debt  which,  including  legal  costs,  amounted 
to  seventy  dollars ;  so  that  his  services  were  valued  at  seven 
dollars  a  year !  The  common  wages  paid  in  that  part  of  the 
country  for  slave-labor,  may  be  learned  from  the  following 
notice,  taken  from  the  Brunswick  (Ga.)  Advertiser,  25th  of 
January,  1838 : 

"  Wanted  to  hire.  —  The  undersigned  wish  to  hire  one  thousand 
negroes,  to  work  on  the  Brunswick-  canal,  of  whom  one-third  may  be 
WOMEN.  Sixteen  dollars  per  month  will  be  paid  for  steady,  prime 
men,  and  thirteen  dollars  for  able  women. 

F.  &  A.  PRATT, 

P.  M.  NIGHTENGALE." 

It  is  obvious  that  a  sale  under  this  law,  for  a  term  of  years,  is 
equivalent  to  a  sale  for  life.  The  debtor  may  be  sold  from  hand 
to  hand,  and  at  the  expiration  of  his  term  may  find  himself 
under  the  lash  of  a  driver  in  Louisiana  or  Missouri,  without  the 
possibility  of  proving  his  title  to  freedom.  Yet,  a  proposition 
in  Congress  to  repeal  this  most  inhuman  and  profligate  law 
would  be  laid  upon  the  table,  and  not  a  representative  of  the 
people  be  permitted  to  say  a  word  on  the  subject. 


ACTION     OF    CONGRESS     IN     BEHALF    OF    THE    SLAVE-HOLDERS 
OF    LOUISIANA. 

On  the  31st  of  May,  1830,  the  House  of  Representatives 
adopted  a  resolution,  directing  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to 
ascertain  and  report  the  number  of  hands  (slaves)  required  per 
acre  in  the  sugar  cultivation.  The  Secretary  accordingly  issued 
a  circular,  proposing  a  number  of  interrogatories  respecting  the 
cultivation  of  sugar,  and  among  others,  the  following:  "The 
number  of  hands  (slaves)  required  to  cultivate  a  given  quantity 


of  land  planted  with  cane,  and  to  perform  all  the  labor  necessary 
in  the  manufacture  of  sugar  in  the  different  places  where  it  is 
made." 

This  circular  was  widely  distributed,  and  the  answers  returned 
to  it  were  published  at  public  expense  ;  and  thus  were  the  sugar 
growers  instructed,  by  means  of  the  Federal  Government,  with 
what  number  of  slaves  to  stock  their  plantations ;  what  expense 
they  must  incur  in  feeding  and  clothing  them,  and  what  number 
of  new  slaves  they  must  annually  procure  to  keep  up  the 
"  force."  From  the  information  thus  furnished,  it  appeared  that 
the  destruction  of  slaves  in  this  culture  is  so  great,  that  there  is 
a  yearly  excess  of  deaths  over  births  of  TWO  AND  A  HALF  PER 
CENT.*  This  waste  of  life  is  supplied  from  the  breeding  farms 
of  Maryland  and  Virginia.  Turning  from  this  private  and  local 
action  of  the  Federal  Government,  we  will  now  take  a  view  of 
its  enlarged  and  comprehensive  efforts  for  the  general  protection 
and  perpetuity  of  the  slave  system.  The  advocates  of  that 
system  have  always  looked  with  distrust  and  alarm  upon  the 
free  colored  people,  and  have  deemed  it  good  policy  to  prevent 
their  acquisition  of  power  and  influence :  hence  the 

EFFORTS    OF     THE     FEDERAL     GOVERNMENT    TO    OPPRESS    AND 
DEGRADE    THE   FREE     PEOPLE    OF    COLOR. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  acknowledges  no  right 
or  disqualification  founded  on  complexion  ;  but  those  who  have 
administered  it,  have  made  the  tincture  of  the  skin  of  far  greater 
importance  than  the  qualities  of  either  the  head  or  the  heart. 
So  early  as  1790,  Congress  passed  an  act  prescribing  the  mode 
in  which  "  any  alien,  being  a  WHITE  person,"  might  be  natural 
ized  and  admitted  to  the  rights  of  an  American  citizen. 

Two  years  after,  an  act  was  passed  for  organizing  the  militia, 
which  was  to  consist  of  "each  and  every  free,  able-bodied 
WHITE  male  citizen,"  &c.  No  other  government  on  earth  pro 
hibits  any  portion  of  its  citizens  from  participating  in  the  national 
defence ;  and  this  strange  and  degrading  prohibition,  utterly 

*  See  Report  of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  January  19,  1831. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       233 

repugnant  to  the  principles  both  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence  and  of  the  Constitution,  marks  the  solicitude  of  the  Federal 
Government  to  pursue  the  policy  most  agreeable  to  the  slave 
holders.  But  not  content  with  this  insult  to  colored  citizens, 
another,  and  perhaps  a  still  more  wanton  and  malignant  one, 
was  offered  by  the  Government  in  the  act  of  1810,  organizing 
the  Post  Office  Department.  The  4th  Section  enacts  that  "  no 
other  than  a  free  WHITE  person  shall  be  employed  in  carrying 
the  mail  of  the  United  States,  either  as  post-rider  or  driver  of  a 
carriage  carrying  the  mail,"  under  a  penalty  of  fifty  dollars. 

Any  vagabond  from  Europe,  any  fugitive  from  our  own  pris 
ons,  may  take  charge  of  the  United  States  mail ;  but  a  native 
born  American  citizen,  of  unimpeachable  morals,  and  with  prop 
erty  acquired  by  honest  industry,  may  not,  if  his  skin  be  dark, 
guide  the  horses  which  draw  the  carriage  in  which  a  bag  of 
newspapers  is  deposited.* 

Such  are  the  insults  heaped  by  the  Federal  Government  on 
the  colored  citizens  throughout  the  States  ;  let  us  see  what  con 
duct  it  pursues  towards  them  on  its  own  territory,  over  which  it 
possesses  "  exclusive  jurisdiction." 

In  1820,  Congress  passed  a  law  authorizing  the  WHITE  citi 
zens  of  the  city  of  Washington  to  elect  WHITE  city  officers ; 
thus  making  a  white  shin  an  indispensable  qualification  for  both 
suffrage  and  office.  The  officers  thus  elected  were  specially 
empowered  by  the  national  legislature  "  to  prescribe  the  terms  and 
conditions  on  which  free  negroes  and  mulattoes  may  reside  in  the 
city."  In  pursuance  of  this  grant  of  power,  the  white  officers 
passed  an  ordinance  (May  31,  1827)  requiring  all  the  free  col 
ored  persons  then  in  Washington  and  wishing  to  remain,  to  be 
registered ;  and  enacting,  that  if  any  free  man  with  a  colored 

*  The  following  letter  of  instruction  from  the  Postmaster  General  to  one 
of  his  deputies,  written  in  1828,  is  a  curious  commentary  on  this  law. 

"  SIR, —  The  mail  may  not,  in  any  case  whatever,  be  in  the  custody  of  a 
colored  person.  If  a  colored  person  is  employed  to  lift  the  mail  from  the 
stage  into  the  Post  Office,  it  does  not  pass  into  his  custody,  but  the  labor  is 
performed  in  the  presence  and  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the  WHITE 
person  who  has  it  in  custody  :  but  if  a  colored  person  takes  it  from  a  tavern 
and  carries  it  himself  to  the  Post  Office,  it  comes  into  his  custody  during  the 
time  of  carrying  it;  which  is  contrary  to  law.  I  am,  &c., 

JOHN  MCLEAN. 


234  JAY'S  WORKS. 

skin  should  presume  to  play  at  cards,  or  even  to  be  present  while 
another  free  colored  person  was  playing,  he  should  be  fined  not 
exceeding  five  dollars ;  that  if  he  should  have  a  dance  in  his 
house,  without  permission  from  the  white  Mayor,  he  should  be 
fined  not  exceeding  ten  dollars  ;  that  should  he  take  the  liberty 
to  go  out  of  his  own  house  after  ten  o'clock  at  night,  without  a 
pass  from  a  Justice  of  the  Peace,  or  "some  respectable  citi 
zen,"  (!)  he  might  be  compelled  to  pass  the  rest  of  the  night  "  in 
a  lock-up  house,"  and  the  next  morning  be  fined  ten  dollars ; 
and  should  any  dark  complexioned  free  man  be  guilty  of  drunk 
enness  or  profane  language,  he  should  be  fined  not  exceeding 
three  dollars.  Thus  we  see  with  what  zeal  the  Washington 
Corporation  endeavors  to  prevent  the  colored  citizens  from 
affecting  the  manners  and  fashions  of  their  white  brethren.  But 
there  are  still  more  serious  matters.  A  colored  citizen  from  any  of 
the  States,  taking  up  his  residence  in  the  Capital  of  the  Repub 
lic,  is  required  within  a  certain  time,  not  only  to  be  registered, 
but  also  to  find  two  freehold  sureties  in  the  penalty  of  five  hun 
dred  dollars,  for  his  good  behavior ;  and  if  he  does  not,  he  is  to 
be  imprisoned  till  he  consents  to  leave  the  seat  of  the  Federal 
Government ;  and  if  he  does  not  prove  that  he  is  a  freeman,  he 
shall  be  sold  as  a  slave  to  pay  his  jail  fees  ! 

In  1830,  a  bill  to  establish  the  territorial  government  of  IOWA 
was  before  Congress.  A  slave-holder  from  Alabama  moved  to 
exclude  colored  persons  from  the  right  of  suffrage ;  and  the 
obedient  Senate  consented.* 

Such, are  the  abominable  and  iniquitous  means  used  by  and 
with  the  sanction  of  Congress  for  the  degradation  and  oppres 
sion  of  colored  citizens.  We  are  next  to  take  a  view  of 

SLAVERY     UNDER     THE     AUTHORITY    OF     THE    FEDERAL 
GOVERNMENT. 

It  is  well  known  that  Congress  is  the  local  legislature  of  the 
District  of  Columbia,  and  of  all  the  territories  belonging  to  the 
Union,  and  with  powers  far  exceeding  those  possessed  by  any 

*  In  1787,  when  our  fathers  established  the  government  of  the  North 
western  territory,  they  prohibited  slavery,  and  disfranchised  no  man  on  ac 
count  of  his  complexion. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       235 

State  Legislature,  being  unfettered  with  constitutional  restric 
tions.  The  authority  vested  in  Congress  over  the  District  and 
territories,  is  virtually  despotic,  being  "  an  exclusive  jurisdiction 
in  all  cases  whatsoever."  Yet  we  have  long  had  slave-holding 
territories.  The  vast  domain  acquired  by  the  purchase  of  Lou 
isiana,  has,  under  the  authority  of  Congress,  been  stocked  with 
slaves,  excepting  so  much  as  is  north  of  36^°  north  latitude, 
which  is,  by  Act  of  Congress,  specially  protected  from  the  pol 
lution.  This  very  law  is  one  of  the  most  decided  acts  of  the 
Federal  Government  in  behalf  of  slavery ;  for  by  means  of  it, 
the  immense  territory  south  of  this  line  was  deliberately  surren 
dered  to  all  the  cruelties  and  abominations  of  the  system ;  it 
was  moreover  an  express  acknowledgment  by  the  Government 
of  its  power  to  prohibit  slavery  throughout  the  whole  territory, 
and  that  it  had  made  a  COMPROMISE,  a  bargain  between  human 
ity  and  cruelty,  religion  and  wickedness  ;  and  had  erected,  on 
an  arbitrary  line,  a  partition  wall  between  slavery  and  liberty. 

But  it  is  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  under  the  shadow  of 
the  proud  Capitol,  that  the  action  of  the  Federal  Government 
in  behalf  of  slavery  is  exhibited  in  its  most  odious  and  disgust 
ing  forms.  We  shall  have  occasion  presently  to  exhibit  the  seat 
of  the  National  Government  as  the  great  slave  mart  of  the 
North  American  continent,  "  furnished  with  all  appliances  and 
means  to  boot."  The  old  slave-laws  of  Virginia  and  Maryland, 
marked  by  the  barbarity  of  other  days,  form  by  Act  of  Congress 
the  slave-code  of  the  District.  Of  this  code,  a  single  sample 
will  suffice.  A  slave  convicted  of  setting  fire  to  a  building, 
shall  have  his  head  cut  off,  and  his  body  divided  into  quarters, 
and  the  parts  set  up  in  the  most  public  places  !  But  let  it  not 
be  supposed  that  Congress  has  not  itself  legislated  directly  on 
the  subject  of  slavery.  An  Act  of  15th  May,  1820,  gives  the 
Corporation  of  Washington  power  to  "  punish  corporeally  any 
SLAVE  for  a  breach  of  any  of  their  ordinances."  Happy  would 
it  have  been  for  the  honor  of  our  country,  if  the  sympathies  of 
its  rulers  in  behalf  of  slavery  had  been  exhibited  only  on  the 
national  domain  ;  but  they  pervade  every  portion  of  the  confed 
eracy,  as  is  but  too  apparent  in 


236  JAY'S  WORKS. 

THE  INTERFERENCE   OF    THE    FEDERAL    GOVERNMENT    FOR 

THE    RECOVERY    OF   FUGITIVE    SLAVES. 

The  Federal  Constitution  contains  the  following  clause  :  "  No 
person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State  under  the  laws 
thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall  in  consequence  of  any  law 
or  regulation  therein  be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor, 
but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such 
service  or  labor  may  be  due." 

At  the  time  this  constitution  was  adopted,  the  cultivation  and 
manufacture  of  cotton  had  not  so  far  progressed,  as  to  paralyze, 
by  their  profits,  the  conscience  of  the  nation,  or  to  divest  it  of 
the  sense  of  shame ;  and  hence  this  clause,  although  relating  to 
slaves,  forbears  to  name  them.  It  was  inserted  to  satisfy  the 
South ;  and  its  obvious  meaning  is,  that  slaves  escaping  into 
States  in  which  slavery  is  abolished  by  law,  shall  not  therefore 
be  deemed  free  by  the  State  authorities,  but  shall  be  delivered 
by  those  authorities  to  his  master.  This  clause  imposes  an  obli 
gation  on  the  States,  but  confers  no  power  on  Congress  ;  and  the 
Constitution  moreover  declares,  that  "  the  powers  not  delegated 
to  the  United  States  by  the  Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to 
the  States,  are  reserved  to  the  States  respectively,  or  to  the 
people."  Hence  it  follows,  that  as  the  power  of  recovering  these 
fugitives  is  not  delegated  to  Congress,  it  is  reserved  to  the  sev 
eral  States,  who  are  bound  to  make  such  laws  as  may  be  deemed 
proper,-  to  authorize  the  master  to  recover  his  slave.  Neverthe 
less,  the  Federal  Government  in  its  zeal  for  slavery,  has  not 
scrupled  to  assume  power  never  delegated  to  it,  and  has  exer 
cised  that  power  in  contemptuous  violation  of  every  principle, 
which  in  free  countries  directs  the  administration  of  justice.  If 
a  Virginian  enters  New  York,  and  claims  as  his  property  a  horse 
which  he  finds  in  the  possession  of  one  of  our  citizens,  an  im 
partial  jury  is  selected  to  pass  on  his  claim,  —  witnesses  are 
orally  and  publicly  examined,  —  the  claimant  is  debarred  from 
all  private  intercourse  with  the  jury ;  and  when  the  trial  is  over, 
the  jury  retire  to  deliberate  on  their  verdict,  under  the  charge  of 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       237 

an  officer  who  is  sworn  to  keep  them  apart,  and  not  to  suffer  any 
person  to  speak  with  them ;  nor  can  the  horse  be  at  last  recov 
ered  but  with  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  jury.  But  let  the 
Virginian  claim,  not  the  horse,  but  the  CITIZEN  HIMSELF, 
as  his  beast  of  burden,  and  the  Federal  Government  makes  all 
things  easy  for  him.  By  the  Act  of  1793,  the  slave-holder  may 
himself,  without  oath,  or  process  of  any  kind,  seize  his  prey 
where  he  can  find  him,  and  at  his  leisure,  (for  no  time  is  speci 
fied,)  drag  him  before  any  Justice  of  the  Peace  in  the  place, 
whem  he  may  prefer.*  This  justice  is  a  State  officer,  and  of 
the  lowest  judicial  grade,  and  under  no  legal  obligation  to  exe 
cute  an  act  of  Congress,  and  entitled  to  no  fees  for  his  services. 
He  is  therefore  peculiarly  accessible  to  improper  influences. 
Before  this  magistrate,  who  is  not  authorized  to  compel  the 
attendance  of  witnesses  in  such  a  case,  the  slave-holder  brings 
his  victim,  and  if  he  can  satisfy  this  judge  of  his  own  choice, 
" by  oral  testimony  or  affidavit"  and  for  aught  that  appears  in 
the  law,  by  his  own  oath,  that  his  claim  is  well  founded,  the 
wretched  prisoner  is  surrendered  to  him  as  a  slave  for  life,  torn 
from  his  wife  and  children,  bereft  of  all  the  rights  of  humanity, 
and  converted  into  a  chattel,  —  an  article  of  merchandise,  —  a 
beast  of  burden  ! ! 

The  .Federal  Constitution  declares  :  —  "In  suits  at  common 
law,  where  the  value  in  controversy  shall  exceed  twenty  dollars, 
the  right  of  TRIAL  BY  JURY  shall  be  preserved ; "  but  the  Act  of 
1793,  in  suits  in  which  "  the  value  in  controversy  "  exceeds  all 
estimation,  dispenses  with  trial  by  jury,  and  indeed  with  almost 
every  safeguard  of  justice  and  personal  liberty. 

This  law,  iniquitous  as  it  is,  does  not  require  State  officers  to 
anticipate  the  pursuit  of  the  slave-holder,  and  to  seize  and  im 
prison  their  fellow-men,  on  mere,  suspicion  that  they  may  be 
claimed  as  slaves.  What  the  Federal  Government  dares  not  do 
in  the  States,  it  accomplishes  on  its  own  exclusive  territory,  and 
in  a  manner  which,  for  atrocious  wickedness  and  tyranny,  leaves 

*  In  New  York  the  Legislature  has  interfered,  and  forbidden  a  Justice  of 
the  Peace  to  act,  and  has  therefore  virtually  declared  the  Act  of  Congress^  to 
be  unconstitutional,  —  and  that  the  power  of  prescribing  the  mode  in  which 
fugitives  shall  be  restored,  belongs  exclusively  to  the  States. 

21 


238  JAY'S  WORKS. 

far  in  the  shade  the  vilest  acts  of  European  despotism.  This  is 
indeed  strong  language ;  but  alas  !  language  is  too  feeble  ade 
quately  to  represent  the  turpitude  of  the  laws  and  practices 
sanctioned  by  the  Federal  Government  in  the  District  under  its 
"  exclusive  jurisdiction." 

By  the  Act  of  1793,  a  justice  can  take  no  step  for  the  resto 
ration  of  a  fugitive  slave,  till  the  fact  of  his  being  one  is  proved 
before  him  on  oath.  But  in  the  Metropolis  of  the  Nation,  —  in 
the  city  called  by  the  name  of  the  Father  of  his  Country,  a 
Justice  of  the  Peace  may  commit  to  the  UNITED  STATES  PRIS 
ON,  and  into  the  costody  of  the  UNITED  STATES  MARSHAL,  any 
man  he  may  choose  to  suspect  of  being  a  fugitive  slave.  Notice 
is  then  given  in  the  newspapers  of  the  commitment,  and  the 
unknown  owner  is  warned  to  take  away  his  property,  or  it  will 
be  sold  according  to  LAW,  to  pay  JAIL  FEES. 

After  the  doors  of  the  dungeon  have  closed  upon  the  victim, 
no  magistrate,  no  court,  no  jury  take  cognizance  of  his  claims 
of  freedom.  The  jailer  is  the  only  tribunal  to  which  he  can 
appeal,  and  how  disinterested  a  tribunal  will  presently  be  seen. 
If  a  free  man,  no  master  can  of  course  lawfully  claim  him,  and 
not  being  claimed,  he  is  sold  at  auction  to  raise  money  to  pay 
an  officer  of  the  Federal  Government  for  the  trouble  and  ex 
pense  of  keeping  him  a  few  weeks  in  prison.  What  civilized 
government  of  the  old  world  practises  more  execrable  wicked 
ness  ?  * 

The  whole  depth  of  this  villany  is  not  yet  sounded.  The 
disclosures  we  are  now  about  making  should  make  every  ear  to 
tingle,  and  every  heart  to  quake.  No  doubt  it  will  occur  to 
many  that  if  a  free  man,  all  the  prisoner  has  to  do,  to  obtain  his 
liberation,  is  to  prove  his  freedom.  Prove  his  freedom  while 

*  Not  as  an  apology  for  this  expression,  but  as  a  reason  why  the  writer 
feels  more  sensibly  than  perhaps  many  others  on  this  subject,  he  thinks 
proper  to  mention  that  a  free  colored  man  belonging  to  his  neighborhood  in 
West  Chester  County,  N.  Y.,  on  going  to  Washington  some  years  since,  was 
there  legally  kidnapped,  and  advertised  by  the  Marshal  to  be  sold  to  pay  his 
jail  fees.  A  Washington  paper  containing  the  advertisement  providentially 
fell  into  the  hands  of  a  citizen  of  the  County  who  knew  the  man.  A  public 
meeting  was  called,  and  the  Governor  of  the  State,  De  Witt  Clinton,  at  their 
request,  demanded  from  the  President  his  immediate  release  as  a  citizen  of 
New  York. 


ACTION    OF    THE     GENERAL    GOVERNMENT.  239 

locked  up  in  his  cell !  Where  is  his  counsel  ?  —  where  his  pro 
cess  for  commanding  the  attendance  of  witnesses  ?  where  the 
court  sitting  in  open  day  to  investigate  his  right  to  freedom  ? 
where  the  jury  to  pass  upon  his  case  ?  The  marshal,  or  his 
deputy  the  jailer,  is  the  only  human  being,  except  his  fellow- 
victims,  to  whom  he  can  tell  his  tale.  The  marshal  is  the  judge, 
and  the  sole  judge  of  his  prisoner's  title  to  freedom.  He  is  the 
arbiter  of  happiness  and  misery,  of  liberty  and  bondage :  he 
opens  the  door  of  the  dungeon,  and  at  his  sovereign  will  bids  his 
captive  go  forth  to  enjoy  the  rights  and  fulfil  the  duties  of  a 
rational,  accountable,  and  immortal  being,  or  conducts  him  to 
the  human  shambles  erected  in  the  city  of  "Washington,  and 
there  sells  him  under  the  hammer  as  a  SLAVR  FOR  LIFE.  Com 
pared  with  this  tremendous  jurisdiction,  the  powers  vested  in 
the  highest  judicial  officer  in  our  country  dwindle  into  insignifi 
cance.  And  should  such  a  judge  be  disinterested  ?  The  very 
question  is  shocking  to  our  every  idea  of  justice.  Disinterested  ! 
Screened  from  the  public  eye  —  accountable  only  to  that  Being 
who  seeth  in  secret  —  declaring  his  judgment  in  the  recesses  of 
the  prison,  he  should  of  all  men  be  most  exempt  from  human 
passion  and  infirmity.  Yet  to  this  judge  the  law  offers  a  high 
and  tempting  bribe  to  sell  men  he  knoivs  to  be  free,  and  thus  to 
become  a  manufacturer  of  slaves.  Will  this  statement  be  cred 
ited  ?  It  cannot,  and  ought  not  to  be,  without  full  and  unequiv 
ocal  proof,  and  to  that  proof  we  now  appeal ;  premising  for  the 
better  understanding  of  our  proof,  that  the  marshal  is  required 
to  maintain  the  suspected  fugitives  while  in  his  custody,  and  is 
entitled  to  fees  for  receiving  them,  &c.,  and  if  unreclaimed,  has 
no  means  of  procuring  payment  of  his  expenses  and  fees  but 
from  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  his  prisoners ;  and  further,  that 
the  whole  of  those  proceeds  are  permitted  by  law  to  remain  in 
his  pocket,  unless  after  the  sale  the  master  should  be  discovered, 
and  should  claim  the  balance. 

On  the  llth  of  January,  1827,  the  committee  on  the  District 
of  Columbia,  to  whom  the  subject  had  been  referred  by  the 
House  of  Representatives,  reported  that  "  in  this  District,  as  in 
all  the  slave-holding  States  in  the  Union,  the  legal  presumption 


240  JAY'S  WORKS. 

is,  that  persons  of  color  going  at  large  without  any  evidences  of 
their  freedom,  are  absconding  slaves,  and  prima  facie  liable  to 
all  the  legal  provisions  applicable  to  that  class  of  persons." 
They  state  that  in  the  part  of  the  District  ceded  by  Virginia,  a 
FREE  negro  may  be  arrested  and  put  in  jail  for  three  months  on 
suspicion  of  being  a  fugitive ;  he  is  then  to  be  hired  out  to  pay 
his  jail  fees  ;  and  if  he  does  not  prove  his  freedom  within  twelve 
months,  is  to  be  sold  as  a  SLAVE.  This  statement  is  followed  by 
the  remark,  "  the  committee  do  not  consider  any  alteration  of 
the  law  in  the  County  of  Alexandria  in  relation  to  this  subject, 
necessary !  "  In  the  County  of  Washington,  ceded  by  Mary 
land,  they  inform  us,  "  If  a  free  man  of  color  should  be  appre 
hended  as  a  runaway,  he  is  subjected  to  the  payment  of  sill  fees 
and  rewards  given  by  law  for  apprehending  runaways ;  and 
upon  failure  to  make  such  payment,  is  liable  to  be  sold  as  a 
slave."  That  is,  a  man  acknowledged  to  be  free,  and  unaccused 
of  any  offence,  is  to  be  sold  as  a  slave  to  pay  the  "  fees  and 
rewards  given  by  law  for  apprehending  runaways"  If  Turkish 
despotism  is  disgraced  by  any  enactment  of  equal  atrocity,  we 
are  ignorant  of  the  fact.  Even  the  committee  thought  this  law 
rather  hard,  and  therefore  they  "  recommended  such  an  alteration 
of  it  as  would  make  such  charges  payable  by  the  corporation  of 
Washington."*  But  the  Federal  Government,  unwavering  in  its 
devotion  to  slavery,  made  no  alteration,  and  the  code  of  Wash 
ington  is  to  this  day  polluted  by  unquestionably  the  most  iniqui 
tous  statute  in  Christendom.  Laws  are  sometimes  more  profli 
gate  than  those  who  are  called  to  administer  them,  and  the 
committee  assure  us  that  the  marshal  has  in  all  cases  refrained 
from  selling  his  prisoners  for  fees  and  charges,  when  their  right 
to  freedom  has  been  established ;  and  in  consequence  of  not 
availing  himself  of  the  privilege  allowed  him  by  this  law,  he 
had  incurred,  in  the  last  eight  years,  a  personal  loss  of  $500  ! 
In  other  words,  the  marshal's  sense  of  justice,  decency,  and 
humanity,  exceeded  that  of  the  rulers  of  our  Republic. 

On  the  29th  of  January,  1829,  the  committee  on  the  District 
of  Columbia  made  a  report  in  obedience  to  the  instructions  of 

*See  Reports  of  Committee,  2  Sess.,  19  Cong.,  Vol.  I,  No.  43. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       241 

the  House  of  Representatives,  "  to  inquire  into  the  slave-trade 
as  it  exists  in  and  is  carried  on  through  the  District."  The  re 
port  proposes  no  interference  on  the  part  of  Congress,  but  is 
virtually  an  apology  for  this  vile  traffic,  as  is  apparent  from  the 
following  heartless  sentiments  and  false  assertions. 

"  The  trade  alluded  to  is  presumed  to  refer  more  particularly  to  that 
which  is  carried  on  with  the  view  of  transporting  slaves  to  the  South, 
which  is  one  way  of  gradually  diminishing  the  evil  complained  of  here ; 
while  the  situation  of  these  persons  is  considerably  mitigated  by  being 
transplanted  to  a  more  genial  and  bountiful  clime.  Although  violence 
may  sometimes  be  done  to  their  feelings  in  the  separation  of  families, 
it  is  by  the  laws  of  society  which  operate  upon  them  as  property,  and 
cannot  be  avoided  as  long  as  they  exist ;  yet  it  should  be  some  consola 
tion  to  those  whose  feelings  are  interested  in  their  behalf,  to  know  that 
their  condition  is  more  frequently  bettered,  and  their  minds  happier  by 
the  exchange."  * 

To  this  report  is  appended  a  letter  (January  13,  1829,)  from 
the  marshal  to  the  committee,  containing  most  important  and 
heart-rending  statements. 

It  appears  from  this  letter,  that  from  the  1st  of  January,  1826, 
to  1st  of  January,  1828,  there  were  committed  to  the  "Wash 
ington  prison,  as  runaways,  101. 

Proved  to  be  free,  and  discharged, 15 

Unclaimed,  and  sold  for  maintenance,  and  charges,  and  fees, 5 

Proved  to  be  slaves,  and  delivered  to  their  masters, 81 

101 
In  1828,  committed  as  runaways,  78. 

Proved  to  be  free, 11 

Unclaimed,  or  sold  for  jail  fees,  etc. 1 

Delivered  to  their  masters, 66 

78 

Here  then  is  proof,  official  documentary  proof,  that  in  three 
years,  179  human  beings  were,  by  the  authority  of  the  Federal 
Government,  arrested  in  one  county  of  the  District,  and  com 
mitted  to  prison  on  no  allegation  of  crime,  but  merely  to  aid 
the  slave-holders  in  trampling  upon  those  great  principles  of 
human  rights,  for  the  protection  of  which  the  National  Govern 
ment  was  professedly  founded.  It  is  also  in  proof,  that  of  these 

*  Reports  of  Committees,  2  Sess.,  20  Cong.,  No.  60. 


242  JAY'S  WORKS. 

179  prisoners,  26  were,  by  the  confession  of  the  marshal,  free 
men ;  men  whom  (as  appears  from  the  report  we  have  quoted,) 
he  had  a  legal  right  to  consign  to  hopeless  and  awful  bondage, 
merely  because  they  were  too  poor  to  pay  the  expenses  of  their 
unjust  imprisonment ;  and  who  were  indebted  for  their  liberty, 
not  to  the  laws  and  constitution  of  their  country,  but  to  the  be 
neficence  of  their  jailer — a  beneficence  too,  exercised  at  his  own 
pecuniary  loss.  Proof  also  is  here  given,  that  six  persons  un 
claimed  as  slaves,  were,  by  the  judgment  of  this  same  jailer, 
without  counsel,  witnesses,  or  trial,  sentenced  to  be  sold  as  slaves 
for  the  purpose  of  raising  money,  the  whole  of  which,  as  we 
shall  presently  see,  was  paid  over  to  the  judge  who  pronounced 
the  sentence.  The  marshal  gives  in  his  letter  the  particulars  of 
the  sale  of  five  unclaimed  negroes,  as  follows : 

Si — Amount  of  jail  fees,  etc.                                                      $84  8  2 
Offered  for  sale  according  to  law,  and  no  person  being 
willing  to  give  $84.82,  he  was  purchased  by  Tench  Ringgold, 
the  marshal,  for  that  sum,  and  afterwards  sold  by  him  to  Ro 
bert  Bown  for  $20,  by  which  the  marshal  lost G4  82 

Hannah  Green  sold  for $61  00 

Maintenance,  &c. 48  71 


Balance  remaining  in  marshal's  hands, $12  29 

Lewis  Davis  sold  for $250  00 

Amount  of  fees,  &c. » 50  07 


Balance  remaining  in  marshal's  hands, $199  93 

James  Green  sold  for $80  00 

Fees  and  maintenance, 4966 

Balance  remaining  in  marshal's  hands, $30  34 


Arthur  Neal  sold  for  amount  of  his  jail  fees  and  maintenance, 

to  the  marshal,  being $46  06 

Sold  afterwards  by  private  sale  to  J.  G.  Hutton  for 40  00 

Lost  by  marshal, $606 

The  letter  concludes  thus  : 

"  The  marshal  has  always  considered  it  to  be  his  duty,  whenever  a 
negro  was  committed  as  a  runaway  by  a  Justice  of  the  Peace,  who  in 
all  cases  under  the  law  commits  them,  which  negro  had  not  in  his  pos- 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       243 

session  proof  of  his  freedom,  but  alleged  himself  to  be  a  freeman,  to 
write  to  any  part  of  the  United  States  to  persons  who  the  negro  affirm 
ed  could  prove  his  freedom,  urging  them  to  send  on  their  certificates 
of  such  negro  being  free  ;  and  in  many  instances,  these  letters  of  the 
marshal  or  his  jailer  have  been  the  means  of  bringing  proof  that  the 
negro  was  free. 

"  The  law  of  Maryland  in  force  in  this  District,  directs  that  the  bal 
ance  of  sales  of  negroes  (sold  as  runaways)  shall  remain  in  the  mar 
shal's  hands  until  the  runaway  was  identified  as  the  property  of  some 
master ;  and  in  conformity  thereto,  the  marshal  has  uniformly  handed 
over  such  balance  whenever  the  master  proved  his  property.  In  a  late 
case,  Mr.  Sprigg,  of  Louisiana,  lost  a  valuable  slave,  who  escaped  from 
him,  and  made  his  way  to  this  District,  and  was  committed  to  my  cus 
tody,  advertised  and  sold,  according  to  law,  leaving  a  balance  of  Jive 
hundred  dollars,  after  paying  ^maintenance,  &c.,  in  my  hand.  The 
negro  was  carried  to  Louisiana  by  the  person  who  purchased  him  of 
me,  discovered  by  his  former  master,  Mr.  Sprigg,  who  sent  on  here 
and  claimed  his  money.  Having  ascertained  that  this  negro  was  the 
property  of  Mr.  Sprigg,  I  paid  the  $500  on  demand  to  his  agent  here, 
Mr.  Josiah  Johnson,  Senator  of  Congress  from  that  State. 

TENCH  RINGGOLD,  Marshal  Dis.  Col." 

Such  are  the  secrets  of  the  prison-house  established  by  the 
Federal  Government.  It  may  be  well  to  contemplate  them  in 
detail.  It  appears  from  the  cases  of  Si  and  NEAL,  that  the  Mar 
shal  of  the  United  States,  after  deciding  on  the  liberty  or  bond 
age  of  his  prisoners,  is  allowed  to  take  his  fees  in  human  flesh, 
and  the  condemned  becomes  the  property  of  the  very  judge 
who  sentenced  him  to  servitude,  and  who  carries  him  into  the 
market  there  to  make  out  of  him  as  much  money  as  he  can. 
True  it  is,  Mr.  Rmggold's  speculations  appear  not  to  have  been 
very  productive,  but  other  jailer-judges  may  have  less  honesty, 
or  more  skill  in  negro  flesh.  The  marshal,  it  seems,  sold  his 
fees  in  the  shape  of  Si,  for  only  $20.  No  reason  is  assigned 
for  this  nominal  price.  Very  probably  it  was  a  case  'similar  to 
the  one  described  by  Mr.  Miner,  in  his  speech  on  the  floor  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  in  1829.  "  In  August,  1821," 
said  Mr.  M.,  "  a  black  man  was  taken  up,  and  imprisoned  as  a 
runaway.  He  was  kept  confined  until  October,  1822,  four  hun 
dred  and  five  days.  In  this  time,  vermin,  disease,  and  misery 
had  deprived  him  of  the  use  of  his  limbs.  He  was  rendered  a 
cripple  for  life,  and  finanly  discharged,  as  no  one  would  buy  him.9 

The  Hannah  and  James  Green  sold  for  fees,  were  most  likely 


244  JAY'S  WORKS. 

man  and  wife,  and  may  remind  us  that  the  law  we  are  consider 
ing  is  utterly  reckless  of  the  most  sacred  relations.  The  pro 
ceeds  of  three  of  the  five  sold  in  1826-7,  after  deducting  fees, 
&c.,  is  $242.56;  and  this  sum,  according  to  law,  the  marshal 
retains  till  called  for;  but  if  the  negroes  were  free,  then, 
there  being  no  claimant,  the  money  can  never  be  called  for,  and 
becomes  the  perquisite  of  office ;  and  the  income  of  the  judge 
of  course  fluctuates  according  to  the  number  he  condemns  to 
slavery.  Thus  does  the  law  literally  press  upon  the  marshal 
the  wages  of  unrighteousness — thus  does  it  bribe  him  to  the 
commission  of  wickedness.  In  one  instance,  the  receipts  of  a 
single  condemnation  were  $500,  of  which  the  marshal  was  de 
prived  only  by  a  most  extraordinary  accident. 

And  now  let  us  review  the  conduct  of  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  towards  the  free  colored  citizen  of  any  State,  who  presumes 
to  visit  the  city  of  Washington.  At  the  will  of  a  Justice  of  the 
Peace  he  is  thrown  into  prison.  His  jailer,  if  he  possesses  the 
humanity  and  disinterestedness  of  Mr.  Binggold,  may,  if  he 
pleases,  write  letters  to  distant  parts  of  the  confederacy,  although 
he  knows  that  a  favorable  answer  may  keep  some  hundred  dol 
lars  from  finding  their  way  into  his  pocket.  If  no  such  answer 
arrives,  without  any  evidence  that  the  letter  of  inquiry  was  ever 
received,  the  poor  wretch  is  condemned  as  a  slave,  and  the  price 
of  his  bones  and  muscles  is  paid  to  the  judge  who  condemned 
him. 

And  by  whom  is  this  accursed  law  kept  in  force  ?  By  north 
ern  Representatives  and  Senators  in  Congress.  On  the  8th  of 
February,  1836,  the  House  of  Representatives  resolved,  that 
"  Congress  ought  not  to  interfere  in  any  way  with  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,"  and  no  less  than  eighty-two  northern 
men  had  the  hardihood  to  record  their  names  in  favor  of  the 
resolution.  To  place,  if  possible,  in  a  still  stronger  light,  the 
conduct  of  these  men,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  law  we  have 
been  considering  belonged  to  the  code  of  Maryland  at  the  time 
the  District  was  ceded,  and  was  continued  in  force  by  Act  of 
Congress.  In  the  meantime,  the  Legislature  of  Maryland,  com 
posed  of  slave-holders,  yielding  to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  has 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       245 

erased  this  foul  stain  from  her  statute  book,  while  our  northern 
Democrats,  with  liberty  and  equality  forever  on  their  lips,  in 
hope  of  getting  a  few  southern  votes  for  their  party,  discover 
that  Congress  ought  not  to  interfere  in  any  way  with  slavery  in 
the  District,  although  it  is  by  the  authority  of  Congress  that 
freemen  are  there  converted  into  slaves. 

We  will  now  place  side  by  side  two  advertisements,  one  pub 
lished  by  authority  of  Congress,  in  which  northern  men  have 
the  majority  ;  the  other  by  authority  of  the  slave  State  of  Mary 
land, — the  first  relating  to  a  woman  and  infant  claiming  to  be 
FREE,  the  other  to  a  man  confessing  himself  a  SLAVE. 

"  NOTICE. — Was  committed  to  the  jail  of  Washington  County, 
District  of  Columbia,  as  a  runaway,  a  negro  WOMAN,  by  the  name  of 
Polly  Leiper,  and  her  infant  child  William.  *  *  *  *  Says  she 
was  set  free  by  John  Campbell,  of  Richmond,  Va.,  in  1818  or  1819. 
The  owner  of  the  above-described  woman  and  child,  if  any,  are  request 
ed  to  come  and  prove  them,  and  take  them  away,  or  they  will  be  SOLD 

FOR  THEIR  JAIL  FEES  AND  OTHER  EXPENSES,  AS  THE  LAW 
DIRECTS.  TENCH  RlNGGOLD, 

May  19,  1827.  Marshal" 

"  RAN  AWAY. — Was  committed  to  the  jail  of  Washington  County, 
Maryland,  on  the  24th  of  December  last,  a  mulatto  man  who  calls  him 
self  John  Me  Daniel,  about  25  years  of  age.  *  *  Says  he  belongs  to 
William  Hill,  living  at  Falmouth,  Va.,  and  was  sold  to  John  Daily, 
living  somewhere  in  the  South.  The  owner  of  the  said  slave  is  re 
quested  to  come  and  take  him  away,  or  he  will  be  released,  according  to 
law.  CHRISTIAN  NEWCOMB,  Jun., 

December  10,  1827- *  Sheriff" 

J 

The   endeavors  of  the   Federal  Government  to  secure  the 

restoration  of  fugitive  slaves  to  their  masters,  are  not  confined 
either  to  the  District  of  Columbia,  or  to  the  States  of  this  con 
federacy.  Even  American  diplomacy  must  be  made  subservient 
to  the  interests  of  the  slave-holders,  and  republican  ambassadors 
must  bear  to  foreign  courts  the  waitings  of  our  government  for 
the  escape  of  human  property. 

On  the  10th  of  May,  1828,  the  House  of  Representatives 
requested  the  President 

"  To  open  a  negotiation  with  the  British  Government,  in  the  view  to 
obtain  an  arrangement  whereby  fugitive  slaves  who  have  taken  refuge 

*  Both  advertisements  are  taken  from  the  Washington  Intelligencer. 


246  JAY'S  WORKS. 

in  the  Canadian  provinces  of  that  government,  may  be  surrendered 
by  the  functionaries  thereof  to  their  masters,  upon  making  satisfactory 
proof  of  their  ownership  of  said  slaves." 

Here  was  a  plain,  palpable  interference  in  behalf  of  slavery 
by  a  government  which  we  are  often  assured  by  the  slave 
holders,  "has  nothing  to  do  with  slavery;"  and  so  tame  and 
subservient  were  the  Northern  members,  that  this  disgraceful 
resolution  was  adopted  without  even  a  division  of  the  House ! 
At  the  next  session,  the  impatience  of  the  slave-holders  to  know 
if  Great  Britain  would  restore  their  slaves  who  had  taken  refuge 
in  Canada,  could  brook  no  longer  delay,  and  the  House  called 
on  the  President  to  inform  them  of  the  result  of  the  negotiation. 
The  President  immediately  submitted  a  mass  of  documents  to 
the  House,  from  which  it  appeared  that  the  zeal  of  the  Execu 
tive,  in  behalf  of  "  the  peculiar  institution,"  had  anticipated  the 
wishes  of  the  Legislature.  Two  years  before  the  interference  of 
the  House,  viz.,  on  the  19th  of  June,  1826,  Mr.  Clay,  Secretary 
of  State,  had  instructed  Mr.  Gallatin,  American  Minister  in 
London,  to  propose  a  stipulation  for  "  a  mutual  surrender  of  all 
persons  held  to  service  or  labor  under  the  laws  of  either  party 
who  escape  into  the  territories  of  the  other."  Mr.  Clay  dwelt 
on  the  number  of  fugitives  in  Canada,  and  desired  Mr.  Gallatin 
to  press  on  the  British  Government  the  consideration  that  such 
a  stipulation  would  secure  to  the  West  India  planters  the  recovery 
of  such  of  their  slaves  as  might  take  refuge  in  the  American  Re 
public  ! 

Surely  the  Federal  Government  was  never  intended  by  its 
founders  to  act  the  part  of  kidnapper  for  West  India  slave 
holders. 

On  the  24th  of  February,  1827,  Mr.  Clay  again  urged  Mr. 
Gallatin  to  procure  this  stipulation,  and  informed  him  that  a 
treaty  had  just  been  concluded  with  Mexico,  by  which  that  power 
had  engaged  to  restore  our  runaway  slaves.* 

On  the  5th  of  July,  1827,  Mr.  Gallatin  communicated  to  his 
government  the  answef  of  the  British  Minister,  that  "  it  was 

*  Such  a  treaty  -was  negotiated,  but  the  Mexican  Congress  refused  to  ratify 
the  base  compact. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       247 

utterly  impossible  for  them  to  agree  to  a  stipulation  for  the  sur 
render  of  fugitive  slaves." 

Determined  not  to  take  NO  for  an  answer,  Mr.  Clay  desired 
Mr.  Barbour,  our  then  Minister  in  England,  to  renew  the  nego 
tiation,  inasmuch  as  the  escape  of  slaves  into  Canada  is  "a 
growing  evil ; "  but  alas,  Mr.  Barbour  replied,  that  on  broaching 
the  subject  to  the  British  minister,  he  had  informed  him  "  the 
law  of  Parliament  gave  freedom  to  every  slave  who  effected  his 
landing  on  British  ground"*  To  have  attempted  to  march  an 
army  into  Canada,  for  the  purpose  of  seizing  these  fugitives, 
would  have  cost  rather  more  than  they  were  worth.  There  was, 
however,  a  territory  on  our  Southern  frontier,  belonging  to  a 
power  less  able  than  Great  Britain  to  punish  aggressions  on  her 
sovereignty,  and  hence  it  is  that  we  are  called  to  consider 

THE    INVASION    OF   FLORIDA,   AND    DESTRUCTION    OF  FUGITIVE 
SLAVES    BY  THE   FORCES  OF   THE    FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT. 

On  the  15th  of  March,  1816,  Mr.  Crawford,  Secretary  of  War, 
addressed  a  letter  to  General  Jackson,  informing  him  that  there 
was  a  fort  in  Florida,  occupied  by  between  two  hundred  and  fifty 
and  three  hundred  blacks,  and  that  they  and  the  hostile  Creek 
Indians  were  guilty  of  secret  practices  to  inveigle  negroes  from 
the  frontiers  of  Georgia,  and  directing  him  to  call  the  attention 
of  the  Commandant  at  Pensacola  to  the  subject.  The  Secretary 
added,  that  should  the  Commandant  decline  interfering,  and 
should  it  be  determined  that  the  destruction  of  the  negro  fort 
does  not  require  the  sanction  of  Congress,  means  will  be  promptly 
taken  for  its  reduction. 

General  Jackson,  however,  had  before  the  receipt  of  this 
despatch,  "  assumed  the  responsibility  "  of  sending  his  orders 
respecting  this  very  fort  to  Gen.  Gaines. 

"  If  the  fort  harbors  the  negroes  of  our  citizens,  or  of  friendly  In 
dians  living  within  our  territory,  or  holds  out  inducements  to  the  slaves 
of  our  citizens  to  desert  from  their  owners'  service,  it  must  le  destroyed. 

*  State  papers,  2  Sess.,  20th  Congress,  Vol.  I. 


248  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Notify  the  governor  of  Pensacola  of  your  advance  into  his  territory,  and 
for  the  express  purpose  of  destroying  these  lawless  banditti"  The  letter 
concludes  with  directions  to  restore  the  stolen  negroes  to  their  rightful 
owners.  Letter  of  8th  of  April,  1816. 

Owing  to  some  cause  not  explained,  Gen.  Gaines  did  not 
fulfil  his  instructions ;  and  a  gun  boat  was  sent  up  the  Appala- 
chicola  river  by  order  of  Commodore  Patterson,  and  on  the 
27th  of  July  attacked  the  fort  by  firing  red-hot  shot  at  it.  A 
shot  entered  the  magazine,  which  exploded.  The  result  is  thus 
stated  in  the  official  report : 

"  Three  hundred  negroes,  men,  women  and  children,  and  about 
twenty  Indians,  were  in  the  fort ;  of  these,  two  hundred  and  seventy 
were  killed,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  rest  mortally  wounded." 

Commodore  Patterson  in  his  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  observes : 

"  The  service  rendered  by  the  destruction  of  this  fort,  and  the  band 
of  negroes  who  held  it  and  the  country  in  its  vicinity,  is  of  great  and 
manifest  importance  to  the  United  States,  and  particularly  those  States 
bordering  on  the  Creek  nation,  as  it  had  become  a  general  rendezvous 
for  runaway  slaves  and  disaffected  Indians  —  an  asylum  where  they 
found  arms  and  ammunition  to  protect  themselves  against  their  owners 
and  the  government.  This  hold  being  destroyed,  they  have  no  longer 
a  place  to  fly  to,  and  will  not  be  so  liable  to  abscond.  The  force  of  the 
negroes  was  daily  increasing,  and  they  had  commenced  several  planta 
tions  on  the  banks  of  the  Appalachicola."* 

We  are  not  aware  that  this  gallant  achievement  called  forth  at 
the  time  any  testimony  of  approbation  from  the  government.  It 
was  probably  regarded  as  an  unnecessary  destruction  of  prop 
erty.  Gen.  Jackson's  orders  were  to  restore  the  negroes  "  to 
their  rightful  owners,"  not  to  kill  them.  But  times  have 
changed ;  abolition  doctrines  are  spreading,  and  hereafter  our 
officers,  and  soldiers,  and  sailors,  may  feel  some  reluctance  at 
being  sent  on  kidnapping  expeditions.  Hence,  after  the  lapse  of 
twenty-three  years,  the  government  has  deemed  it  good  policy 
to  evince  their  estimation  of  such  ^services,  by  rewarding  the 

*  State  papers,  2Sess.,  15th  Congress,  No.  65. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       249 

heroes  of  Appalachicola.     The  following   is   taken   from   the 
Washington  Globe : 

"  NOTICE.  —  The  sum  of  FIVE  THOUSAND  FOUR  HUNDRED  AND 
SIXTY-FIVE  DOLLARS  having  been  appropriated  by  an  Act  of  Con 
gress,  passed  at  the  last  session,  to  be  distributed  as  prize  money  among 
the  officers  and  crews,  their,  or  either  of  their  heirs  or  legal  represen 
tatives,  of  the  gun  boats,  numbered  149  and  154,  who  in  the  month  of 
July,  1816,  blew  up  and  destroyed  a  fort  occupied  by  fugitive  negroes 
and  Indians,  on  the  river  Appalachicola,  all  persons  having  claims 
upon  the  sum  so  appropriated,  are  notified  to  present  and  prove  the 
same  without  delay  at  the  office  of  the  Fourth  Auditor  of  the  Treasury 
Department,  in  the  City  of  Washington. 

"Fourth  Auditor's  Office,  May  23d,  1839." 

It  is  now  time  to  advert  to  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 
exploits  of  American  diplomacy,  viz. : 


COMPENSATION  FOR    FUGITIVE    SLAVES    OBTAINED  BY    THE 
FEDERAL    GOVERNMENT. 

The  presence  of  British  armed  vessels  in  our  Southern  waters, 
during  the  last  war,  afforded  an  opportunity  to  many  of  the 
slaves  to  escape  from  bondage.  In  1814,  and  while  the  war 
was  raging  in  all  its  fury,  commissioners  were  appointed  to 
treat  of  peace,  and  instructions  were  given  to  them  as  to  the 
stipulations  to  be  inserted  in  the  treaty.  These  instructions 
contain  the  following  remarkable  passage : 

"  The  negroes  taken  from  the  Southern  States  should  be  returned  to 
their  owners,  or  paid  for  at  their  full  value.  If  these  slaves  were  con 
sidered  as  non-combatants,  they  ought  to  be  restored  :  if  as  property, 
they  ought  to  be  paid  for."  Moreover,  this  stipulation  is  expressly 
included  "  in  the  conditions  on  which  you  are  to  insist  in  the  proposed 
negotiations."  Letter  of  Instructions  from  Mr.  Monroe,  Secretary  of 
State,  28th  January,  1814.* 

Thus  we  see  that  not  even  the  calamities  of  war  could  divert 
the  attention  ,pf  the  Federal  Government  from  the  peculiar 
interests  of  the  slave-holders.  The  commissioners  were  faithful 
to  the  charge  thus  given  to  them :  and  in  the  treaty  concluded 

*  American  State  papers,  Vol.  IX,  p.  364 
22 


250  JAY'S  WORKS. 

at  Ghent,  adroitly  provided  for  the  restoration  of  slaves  ;  and  in 
such  obscure  terms  as  ultimately  secured  a  far  more  extensive 
concession  than  the  British  negotiators  had  any  intention  of 
making. 

The  1st  article  is  as  follows: 

"  All  territory,  places,  and  possessions  whatever,  taken  from  either 
party,  by  the  other  during  the  war,  or  which  may  be  taken  after  the 
signing  of  this  treaty,  shall  be  restored  without  delay ;  and  without 
causing  any  destruction  or  carrying  away  of  the  artillery  or  other  pub 
lic  property  originally  captured  in  said  forts  or  places,  and  which  shall 
remain  upon  the  exchange  of  the  ratifications  of  this  treaty,  or  any 
slaves  or  other  private  property." 

The  treaty  was  ratified  at  Washington  on  the  17th  of  Febru 
ary  ;  and  six  days  after,  three  commissioners  appointed  by  the 
government  appeared  in  the  Chesapeake,  authorized  to  demand 
and  receive  the  slaves  on  board  the  British  squadron  still  in  our 
waters. 

Captain  John  Clarelle  happened  to  be  at  the  moment  in  com 
mand  of  the  British  forces,  and  he  positively  refused  to  give  up 
a  single  fugitive ;  contending  that  the  stipulation  in  the  treaty 
related  only  to  slaves  "  originally  captured  in  forts  or  places," 
and  remaining  in  such  forts  or  places  at  the  exchange  of  the  rat 
ifications,  and  had  no  reference  to  slaves  who  had  voluntarily 
sought  protection  on  board  British  vessels. 

A  few  days  after,  Admiral  Cockburn  arrived  and  a  similar 
demand  was  made  upon  him.  He  also  refused  to  surrender  any 
fugitives,  as  such  were  not  included  in  the  treaty,  but  gave  up 
eighty  slaves  which  were  found  on  Cumberland  Island  at  the 
time  that  place  was  captured,  and  who  had  not  been  removed 
previous  to  the  exchange  of  ratifications;  this  being  a  case 
directly  within  the  true  meaning  and  intention  of  the  treaty. 
The  Secretary  of  State  then  applied  to  the  British  Charge  d' Af 
faires  at  Washington,  requesting  him  to  direct  the  Naval  Com 
manders  in  the  Chesapeake  to  give  up  the  fugitives  on  board 
their  vessels;  but  Mr.  Baker  declined  interfering,  taking  the 
same  view  of  the  article  as  the  Admiral  had  done.  In  the 
meantime,  the  squadron1  had  sailed  for  Bermuda.  The  Gov 
ernment,  tracking  the  scent  of  a  fugitive  with  bloodhound  keen- 


ACTION  OP  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       251 

ness,  forthwith  despatched  an  agent  to  Bermuda  in  pursuit,  to 
demand  the  negroes  of  the  Governor.  The  worthy  Englishman, 
nettled  at  a  requisition  so  derogatory  to  the  honor  of  his  country, 
replied,  "  he  would  rather  Bermuda,  with  every  man,  woman 
and  child  in  it,  were  sunk  under  the  sea,  than  surrender  one 
slave  that  had  sought  protection  under  the  flag  of  England." 

The  agent,  (Thomas  Spalding,)  nothing  daunted,  now  assumed 
the  diplomatist,  and  addressed  a  long  argumentative  despatch  to 
Admiral  Griffith,  commanding  on  the  Bermuda  station,  demand 
ing  the  fugitives,  and  promising  to  furnish  him  with  a  particular 
list  of  the  slaves  claimed,  which  he  expected  to  receive  in  a  few 
days  from  the  United  States.  The  Admiral  very  cavalierly 
assured  Mr.  Spalding  that  it  was  quite  unnecessary  for  him  to 
wait  at  Bermuda  for  the  expected  document,  since  there  was, 
neither  at  Bermuda  nor  any  other  British  island  or  settlement, 
any  authority  "  competent  to  deliver  up  persons,  who,  during 
the  late  wars,  had  placed  themselves  under  the  protection  of  the 
British  flag."* 

From  British  Governors  and  admirals,  our  Government  now 
turned  to  the  British  Cabinet,  and  found  that  there  also  it  was 
held  a  point  of  honor  to  keep  faith,  even  with  runaway  slaves. 
Lord  Castlereagh  declared  that  the  government  never  would 
have  assented  to  a  treaty  requiring  the  surrender  of  persons 
who  had  taken  refuge  under  the  British  standard.  Again  was 
the  demand  made,  and  again  was  it  unequivocally  rejected. 
But  the  administration  refused  to  yield,  and  insisted  on  a  refer 
ence  of  the  question  to  the  decision  of  a  friendly  power,  and 
named  the  Emperor  of  Russia  as  umpire.  After  tedious  nego 
tiation,  this  point  was  carried:  and  in  1818,  a  convention  was 
concluded  at  London,  submitting  the  true  construction  of  the 
treaty  to  the  Emperor,  who  decided  in  favor  of  the  slave 
holders.  It  now  became  necessary  to  determine  how  the  num 
ber  of  slaves,  and  their  value,  should  be  ascertained.  Another 
negotiation  ensued,  which  resulted  in  a  second  convention,  by 
which  it  was  agreed  that  each  party  should  appoint  a  certain 

*  State  papers,  Uth  Congress,  2d  Session.    Senate  documents,  No.  28. 


252  JAY'S  WORKS. 

number  of  Commissioners,  who  should  form  a  Board  to  sit  at 
Washington,  to  receive  and  liquidate  the  claims  of  the  masters. 
But  difficulties  soon  arose.  The  American  Commissioners 
insisted  on  interest,  which  the  others  refused  to  allow.  Negotia 
tions  again  commenced,  till  at  last  the  British  Cabinet,  wearied 
with  the  pertinacity  of  the  American  Government,  and  sick  of 
the  controversy,  entered  into  a  third  convention,  (13th  of  Nov., 
1826,)  by  which  the  enormous  sum  of  ONE  MILLION  TWO  HUN 
DRED  AND  FOUR  THOUSAND  DOLLARS  was  paid  and  received 
in  full  of  all  demands. 

Thus  after  a  persevering  negotiation,  conducted  for  twelve 
years,  at  Washington,  in  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  at  Bermuda, 
at  London,and  at  Petersburg,  did  our  government  succeed  in 
obtaining  most  ample  compensation  for  the  fugitives.  Commis 
sioners  were  then  appointed  to  distribute  this  sum ;  and  after 
fixing  an  average  value  on  each  slave  proved  to  have  been*  car 
ried  away,  it  was  found  that  a  surplus  still  remained;  and  this 
surplus  was  divided  among  the  masters  ! 

Having  now  seen  the  success  that  attended  the  pursuit  of 
fugitive  slaves,  let  us  next  witness  the 

EFFORTS    OF    THE    FEDERAL     GOVERNMENT    TO    RECOVER 
SHIPWRECKED    SLAVES. 

Considering  the  extent  of  the  American  slave-trade,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  our  SLAVERS  are  occasionally  driven  out  of  their 
course ;  and  are  sometimes  wrecked  upon  the  dangerous  reefs 
abounding  in  the  neighboring  Archipelago. 

On  the  3d  of  January,  1831,  the  brig  Comet,  a  regular  slaver 
from  the  District  of  Columbia,  on  her  usual  voyage  from  Alex 
andria  to  New  Orleans,  with  a  cargo  of  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
four  slaves,  was  lost  off  the  island  of  Abaco.  The  slaves  were 
saved,  and  carried  into  New  Providence,  where  they  were  set  at 
liberty  by  the  authorities  of  the  island.  A  portion  of  the  cargo 
(146  head)  was  insured  at  New  Orleans  for  $71,330. 

On  the  4th  of  February,  1839,  the  brig  Encomium,  from 
Charleston  to  New  Orleans,  with  forty-five  slaves,  was  also 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       253 

wrecked  near  Abaco,  and  the  slaves  carried  into  New  Provi 
dence,  where,  Jike  their  predecessors,  they  were  declared  to  be 
free. 

In  February,  1835,  the  Enterprise,  another  slaver  from  the 
National  Domain,  on  her  voyage  to  Charleston,  with  seventy- 
eight  slaves,  was  driven  into  Bermuda  in  distress.  The  pas 
sengers,  instead  of  being  thrown  into  prison,  as  Bermudians 
would  have  been  in  Charleston  under  similar  circumstances, 
were  hospitably  treated,  and  permitted  to  go  at  large.  These 
successive  and  unexpected  transmutations  of  slaves  into  free 
men,  roused  the  ready  zeal  of  the  Federal  Government.  Di 
rectly  on  the  loss  of  the  Comet,  instructions  were  sent  from 
Washington  to  our  Minister,  to  demand  of  the  British  Govern 
ment  the  value  of  the  cargo.  In  1832,  another  despatch  was 
forwarded  on  the  subject.  The  instructions  were  again  renewed 
in  1833,  the  Secretary  of  State  remarking,  this  case  "must  be 
brought  to  a  conclusion  ;  the  doctrine  that  would  justify  the 
liberation  of  our  slaves,  is  too  dangerous  to  a  large  section  of 
our  country  to  be  tolerated." 

In  1834,  fresh  instructions  were  sent,  and  a  demand  ordered 
to  be  made  for  the  value  of  the  slaves  in  the  Encomium. 

In  1835,  similar  instructions  were  sent  relative  to  the  Enter 
prise. 

In  1836,  the  instructions  were  renewed ;  the  Secretary  observ 
ing  to  Mr.  Stevenson,  "  In  the  present  state  of  our  diplomatic 
relations  with  the  Government  of  His  Britannic  Majesty,  the 
most  immediately  pressing  of  the  matters  with  which  the  United 
States  Legation  at  London  is  «ow  charged,  is  the  claim  of  cer 
tain  American  citizens  against  Great  Britain  for  a  number  of 
slaves,  the  CARGOES  of  three  vessels  wrecked  in  British  islands 
in  the  Atlantic." 

From  a  Jong  and  labored  communication  from  Mr.  Steven 
son  to  .Lord  Palmerston,  we  extract  the  following  morceau^ 

"'The  undersigned  feels  assured  that  it  will  only  be  necessary  to 
refer  Lord  Palmerston  to  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  laws  of  many  of  the  States,  to  satisfy  him  of  the 
existence  of  slavery,  and  that  slaves  are  there  regarded  and  protected  as 
property ;  that  by  these  laws,  there  is  in  fact  no  distinction  in  principle 


254  JAY'S  WOKKS. 

between  property  in  persons  and  property  in  things ;  and  that  the  Gov 
ernment  have  more  than  once,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  determined 
that  slaves  killed  in  the  service  of  the  United  States,  even  in  a  state  of  war, 
were  to  be  regarded  as  property,  and  not  as  persons,  and  the  Government 
held  responsible  for  their  value." 

No  answer  having  been  vouchsafed  to  this  letter,  and  the 
argument  being  exhausted,  Mr.  Stevenson  tried  the  virtue  of  a 
diplomatic  hint  that  the  United  States  would  go  to  war  for  their 
slaves ;  expressing  his  hope  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Palmerston,  that 
the  British  Go  /ernment  would 

"  Not  longer  consent  to  postpone  the  decision  of  a  subject  which  had 
been  for  so  many  years  under  its  consideration ;  and  the  effect  of 
which  can  be  none  other  than  to  throw  not  only  additional  impediments 
in  the  way  of  an  adjustment,  and  increase  those  feelings  of  dissatisfac 
tion  and  irritation  which  have  already  been  excited ;  but  by  possibility 
tend  to  disturb  and  weaken  the  kind  and  amicable  relations  which  now 
so  happily  subsist  between  the  two  countries,  and  on  the  preservation  of 
which,  so  essentially  depend  the  interests  and  happiness  of  both"  Letter 
of  31st  December,  1836. 

The  British  Cabinet,  after  long  delays,  reluctantly  consented 
to  pay  for  the  cargoes  of  the  Comet  and  Encomium  on  the  ground 
that  at  the  time  the  slaves  composing  them  were  liberated,  sla 
very  still  existed  in  the  British  West  Indies ;  but  inasmuch  as 
the  emancipation  Act  had  been  passed  before  the  arrival  of  the 
Enterprise,  her  passengers  could  not  be  recognized  by  British 
courts  as  property,  and  therefore  the  government  could  not  and 
would  not  pay  for  them.  The  letter  of  Lord  Palmerston  an 
nouncing  this  determination,  concluded  as  follows  : 

"  Slavery  being  now  abolished  througlmut  the  British  empire,  there 
can  be  no  well-founded  claim  for  compensation  in  respect  of  slaves, 
who,  under  any  circumstances,  may  come  into  British  colonies,  any 
more  than  there  would  be  with  respect  to  slaves  brought  into  the 
United  Kingdom." 

This  announcement  was  received  in  high  dudgeon  at  Wash 
ington.  Mr.  Forsyth,  the  Secretary  of  State,  wrote  (27th 
March,  1837)  to  Mr.  Stevenson,  that  the  principles  on  which  the 
claim  of  the  owner  of  the  slaves  on  board  the  Enterprise  had 
been  rejected,  "  are  regarded  by  the  PRESIDENT  as  inconsistent 


ACTION  OP  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       255 

with  the  respect  due  from  all  foreign  powers  to  the  institutions 
of  a  friendly  nation ! "  Mr.  Van  Buren  it  seems  is  yet  to  learn 
that  our  republican  institution  of  negro  slavery,  instead  of  being 
regarded  with  respect,  is  viewed  with  scorn  and  detestation  by 
the  civilized  world.  He  is  not,  however,  ignorant  of  the  influ 
ence  which  his  respect  for  it  will  have  on  the  next  presidential 
election.  Mr.  Forsyth  proceeded : 

"  The  soundness  of  the  principle  is  explicitly  denied,  and  the  serious 
consequences  with  which,  in  the  judgment  of  the  PRESIDENT,  it  is 
fraught  to  the  property  and  tranquillity  of  our  citizens,  call  imperatively 
upon  HIM  to  announce  to  his  majesty's  government,  immediately  and 
solemnly,  that  its  application  to  them  never  can  be  acquiesced  in  by  the 
government  of  the  United  States."  *  *  *  *  "  The  PRESIDENT 
has  been  particularly  affected  by  the  declaration,  that  no  claim  for 
slaves  coming  into  the  British  dominions,  under  any  circumstances, 
will  be  entertained  by  his  majesty's  government.  Although  the  Presi 
dent  well  knows  that  such  is  not  the  intention  of  his  majesty's  govern 
ment,  yet  this  declaration,  if  not  regarded  as  an  invitation,  will  be  the 
strongest  inducement  to  the  flight  or  abduction  of  slaves,  by  fraud  or 
force,  from  their  masters  ;  and  if  adhered  to,  cannot  fail  to  be  consid 
ered,  especially  by  the  sufferers  from  its  influence,  as  an  evidence  of  a 
spirit  hostile  to  the  repose  and  security  of  the  United  States."  *  * 
*  *  "  Irritated  by  discussion  without  agreement,  DISCUSSION  WILL 

BE    ABANDONED    FOR    RETALIATION    OR    RETORTION  ;    and  SOOHCr  Or 

later,  the  cordial  good  will,  at  present  so  happily  existing  between  the 
two  countries,  will  be  converted  into  BITTER  HOSTILITY  —  the  fore 
runner  of  incalculable  injuries  to  both." 

Mr.  Stevenson  was  directed  to  lay  this  bullying  epistle  "  in 
extenso  "  before  the  British  Minister.  Lord  Palmerston,  in  his 
reply,  did  not  condescend  to  notice  the  threats  of  Messrs.  Van 
Buren  and  Forsyth,  but  calmly  repeated  the  assurance,  that 

"  Slavery  being  now  abolished  throughout  the  British  empire,  there 
can  be  no  well-founded  claim  on  the  part  of  any  foreigner  in  respect  of 
slaves,  who,  under  any  circumstances  whatever,  may  come  into  the 
British  colonies,  any  more  than  there  would  be  in  respect  to  slaves 
who  might  come  into  the  United  Kingdom." 

The  Federal  Government  did  not  deem  it  expedient,  on  the 
receipt  of  this  despatch,  to  declare  war  against  Great  Britain, 
but  preferred  making  another  attempt  at  negotiation ;  and  a  most 
extraordinary  attempt  it  was.  Mr.  Stevenson  was  instructed 


256  JAY'S  WORKS. 

(1 2th  March,  1838)  to  ascertain  whether  the  British  govern 
ment 

"  Are  prepared  at  once  to  enter  upon  the  negotiation  of  a  convention 
for  regulating  the  disposition  of  slaves  belonging  to  the  United  States 
that  may  be  carried  by  force  into  the  colonies  lying  contiguous  to  our 
territories,  or  driven  in  by  stress  of  weather,  with  a  view  to  the  pre 
vention  of  the  ill  effects  to  be  apprehended  from  future  collisions  upon 
a  subject  so  liable  to  produce  in  the  people  of  the  respective  countries 
a  high  degree  of  excitement  and  irritation.  In  the  meantime,  the 
President,  anxious  to  avoid  every  thing  that  might  tend  in  the  least 
degree  to  disturb  the  amicable  relations  subsisting  between  the  two 
countries,  WILL  ABSTAIN  from  taking  those  steps  for  the  security  of 
the  rights  and  property  of  our  citizens  which  the  recent  decision  of  her 
majesty's  government,  in  the  absence  of  any  agreement  upon  the  sub 
ject,  would  render  necessary,  until  opportunity  is  offered  for  receiving 
the  answer  of  her  majesty's  government,  to  ,the  application  which  you 
are  hereby  directed  to  make." 

* 

It  would  be  doing  injustice  to  Mr.  Van  Buren  to  suppose  him 
capable  of  the  weakness  of  believing  that  such  a  proposition 
would  be  listened  to  after  the  reiterated  declarations  to  the  con 
trary  by  Lord  Palmerston.  The  correspondence  it  was  known 
would  be  published  before  the  next  election ;  and  the  South 
would  perceive  that  the  President,  although  a  Northern  man, 
had  done  what  he  could  to  sustain  "  the  rights  and  property " 
of  the  slave-holders.  A  reprieve,  it  will  be  seen,  was  granted 
to  her  majesty's  government  until  an  opportunity  was  afforded 
for  receiving  its  answer.  On  the  10th  of  July,  1838,  Mr.  Stev 
enson  laid  before  the  British  minister  the  terms  of  the  required 
treaty,  which  were,  — 

1st.  That  Great  Britain  should  "refrain  from  forcing  liberty 
upon  such  American  slaves  "  as  might  hereafter  be  compelled 
to  enter  British  colonial  ports. 

2d.  That  she  should  prohibit  the  landing  of  such  slaves  in  the 
colonies. 

3d.  That  when  unavoidably  landed,  they  should  be  placed 
under  military  guard  till  their  owners  could  re-ship  them. 

The  answer,  big  with  the  fate  of  Britain,  and  which  was  to 
terminate  Mr.  Van  Buren's  long-suffering  and  forbearance,  was 
returned  on  the  10th  of  July,  1838,  —  and  such  an  answer! 
The  American  minister  is  assured  that  "  an  engagement  on  the 


ACTION  OP  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT*       257 

part  of  Great  Britain  not  to  force  liberty  upon  American  slaveSj 
would  appear  to  assume  a  preference,  to  slavery  on  the  part  of 
such  persons,  which  is  scarcely  consistent  with  the  known  prin 
ciples  of  human  nature  ; "  and  moreover,  that  such  engagement 
is  wholly  unnecessary  j  since  the  British  law  forces  no  slave  to 
leave  a  master  he  wishes  to  serve*  But  that  a  law  depriving 
American  slaves  in  the  British  dominions  of  the  right  of  habeas 
corpus,  "  would  be  so  entirely  at  variance  with  every  principle 
of  the  British  Constitution,  that  no  government  Would  venture  to 
propose  it  to  Parliament,  and  no  Parliament  would  agree  to  adopt 
it."  And  as  to  placing  American  slaves  under  a  military  guard, 
that  they  might  be  restored  to  their  masters,  it  would  be  a  duty 
"  50  repugnant  to  every  feeling  of  the  officers  and  men  of  the 
British  army,  that  her  majesty's  government  would  in  any  case 
be  extremely  unwilling  to  call  upon  her  majesty's  troops  to  per 
form  it ;  and,  in  the  next  place,  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  troops 
could  be  so  employed  consistently  with  the  law  now  in  force  for 
the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  and  her  majesty's  government 
could  not  propose  to  Parliament  the  repeal  of  that  law" 

Such  was  the  answer,  —  and  not  only  has  it  been  received, 
but  it  has  been  submitted  to  Congress  ;  and  yet  Mr.  Van  Buren 
still  abstains  "  from  taking  those  steps  for  the  security  of  the 
rights  and  property  of  our  citizens  "  which  the  decision  of  her 
majesty's  government  renders  necessary ! 

Thus  for  eight  successive  years  has  the  cabinet  at  Washington 
been  sending  instructions  to  their  agents  in  England  to  procure 
payment  for  these  cargoes  of  human  flesh :  nor  has  Congress 
been  wanting  in  zeal  on  the  same  subject.  Twice  has  the 
Senate  called  on  the  President  to  report  the  progress  of  the 
negotiation.  The  first  call  (7th  February,  1837)  asked  for  a 
copy  of  the 

"  Correspondence  with  the  Government  of  Great  Britain  in  relation 
to  the  outrage  committed  on  our  flag,  and  the  rights  of  our  citizens,  by 
the  authorities  of  Bermuda  and  New  Providence,  in  seizing  the  slaves 
on  board  the  brigs  '  Encomium '  and  '  Enterprise,'  engaged  in  the 
coasting  trade,  but  which  were  forced  by  shipwreck  and  stress  of 
weather  into  the  ports  of  those  islands." 


258  JAY'S  WORKS. 

The  language  of  this  resolution  indicates  the  influence  exerted 
by  slavery  over  the  Federal  Government.  Should  a  murderer 
escape  from  England  and  land  on  our  shores,  we  refuse  to  sur 
render  him  to  the  justice  of  his  country ;  but  when  the  West 
India  authorities  refuse  to  deliver  two  hundred  and  eighty-seven 
innocent  men,  women  and  children,  thrown  by  the  tempest  under 
their  protection,  into  hopeless,  interminable  slavery,  the  Senate 
Solemnly  pronounce  the  refusal  to  be  an  outrage  on  our  flag,  and 
the  rights  of  our  citizens.  Moreover,  the  liberation  of  these 
persons  is  spoken  of  as  a  seizure  of  them,  and  the  slavers  carry 
ing  human  cargoes  to  market,  are  most  audaciously  declared  to 
have  been  engaged  in  the  coasting  trade  !  The  real  trade  in 
which  these  vessels  were  engaged,  was 

THE   AMERICAN     SLAVE-TRADE     UNDER    THE   PROTECTION   AND 
REGULATION    OF   THE   FEDERAL    GOVERNMENT. 

We  shall  first  exhibit  the  character  and  extent  of  this  trade, 
and  then  show  that  it  is  in  fact  carried  on  under  the  protection 
and  regulation  of  the  Federal  Government. 

The  competition  of  free  with  slave-labor  in  the  bread-stuffs  and 
some  other  productions  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  North  Caro~ 
lina,  has  greatly  reduced  the  value  of  slaves  as  laborers  in  those 
States ;  and  hence  the  disposition  manifested  there  some  years 
since,  to  get  rid  of  this  unprofitable  portion  of  their  population, 
But  the  rapid  extension  of  the  cotton  and  sugar  cultivation  in 
the  extreme  South,  together  with  the  settlement  of  the  new 
States  of  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Missouri,  and  Arkansas,  occa 
sioned  a  prodigious  demand  for  slaves ;  and  the  agriculturists  of 
Virginia  and  the  neighboring  States  discovered  that  their  most 
lucrative  occupation  was  that  of  raising  live  stock  for  the  South 
ern  and  Western  markets.  In  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  it 
has  also  been  found  more  advantageous  to  export  their  super 
numeraries  to  Mobile,  New  Orleans,  or  Natchez,  than  to  employ 
them  on  their  well-stocked  plantations.  Hence  has  grown  up 
an  almost  incredible  transfer  of  slaves  from  the  North  to  the 
South ;  and  recently  a  new  market  has  been  opened  in  Texas, 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       259 

giving  an  additional  stimulus  to  the  trade.  It  is  impossible  to 
ascertain  the  exact  amount  of  this  trade,  as  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  in  his  annual  report  on  the  commercial  statistics  of 
the  United  States,  has  never  included  any  statements  respecting 
this  branch  of  the  "  coasting  trade."  But,  indeed,  the  returns 
from  the  several  Custom  Houses  of  the  size  and  value  of  the 
human  cargoes  cleared  for  the  Southern  ports,  if  given,  would 
afford  a  very  inadequate  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  traffic,  since  it  is 
carried  on  by  land  as  well  as  by  sea.  Whole  coffles  of  chained 
slaves  are  driven  long  and  painfnl  journeys  in  the  interior  of  the 
Republic,  much  in  the  same  manner  as  in  the  wilds  of  Africa. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Dickey  in  a  published  letter  thus  describes  a 
coffle  he  met  on  the  road  in  Kentucky : 

I  discovered  about  forty  black  men  all  chained  together  in  the 
following  manner:  each  of  them  was  handcuffed,  and  they  were 
arranged  in  rank  and  file ;  a  chain  perhaps  forty  feet  long  was  stretched 
between  two  ranks,  to  which  short  chains  were  joined,  which  connected 
with  the  handcuffs.  Behind  them  were,  I  suppose,  thirty  women  in 
double  rank,  the  couples  tied  hand  to  hand." 

The  Presbyterian  Synod  of  Kentucky,  in  an  address,  in 
1835,  to  the  churches  under  their  care,  speaking  of  this  trade, 
say: 

"  Brothers  and  sisters,  parents  and  children,  husbands  and  wives, 
are  torn  asunder,  and  permitted  to  see  each  other  no  more.  These 
acts  are  daily  occurring  in  the  midst  of  us.  The  shrieks  and  agony 
often  witnessed  on  such  occasions,  proclaim  with  a  trumpet  tongue  the 
iniquity  of  OUR  system.  There  is  not  a  neighborhood  where  these 
heart-rending  scenes  are  not  displayed.  There  is  not  a  village  or  road 
that  does  not  behold  the  sad  procession  of  manacled  outcasts,  whose 
mournful  countenances  tell  that  they  are  exiled  by  force  from  all  that 
their  hearts  hold  dear." 

J.  K.  PAULDING,  the  present  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  gives 
the  following  picture  of  a  scene  he  witnessed  in  Virginia : 

"  The  sun  was  shining  out  very  hot,  and  in  turning  an  angle  of  the 
road  we  encountered  the  following  group :  first,  a  little  cart  drawn  by 
one  horse,  in  which  five  or  six  half  naked  black  children  were  tumbled 
like  pigs  together.  The  cart  had  no  covering,  and  they  seemed  to 
have  been  actually  broiled  to  sleep.  Behind  the  cart  marched  three 
k  women,  with  head,  neck  and  breasts  uncovered,  and  without 


260 

shoes  or  stockings :  next  came  three  men,  bareheaded,  half  naked,  and 
chained  together  with  an  ox-chain.  Last  of  all  came  a  white  man — a 
white  man,  Frank! — on  horseback,  carrying  pistols  in  his  belt,  and 
who,  as  we  passed  him,  had  the  impudence  to  look  us  in  the  face  with 
out  blushing.  I  should  like  to  see  him  hunted  by  bloodhounds.  At  a 
house  where  we  stopped,  a  little  further  on,  we  learned  that  he  had 
bought  these  miserable  beings  in  Maryland,  and  was  marching  them 
in  this  manner  to  some  of  the  more  southern  States.  Shame  on  the 
State  of  Maryland !  I  say — and  shame  on  the  State  of  Virginia,  and 
every  State  through  which  this  wretched  cavalcade  was  permitted  to  pass. 
Do  they  expect  that  such  exhibitions  will  not  dishonor  them  in  the  eyes  of 
strangers,  however  they  may  be  reconciled  to  them  by  education  and 
habit  ?"* 

The  annexed  picture,  it  will  be  perceived,  is  drawn  by  a 
southern  pencil. 

"  Place  yourself  in  imagination  for  a  moment  in  their  condition — 
with  heavy  galling  chains  riveted  upon  your  person,  half-naked,  half- 
starved,  your  back  lacerated  with  the  knotted  whip,  travelling  to  a 
region  where  your  condition  through  time  will  be  second  only  to  the 
wretched  creatures  in  hell.  This  depiction  is  not  visionary — would  to 
God  that  it  was  !"  Editorial,  Maryville  (Tennessee)  Intelligencer,  4th 
October,  1835. 

*  "  Letters  from  the  South,  written  during  an  excursion  in  the  summer  of 
1816."  New  York,  1817.  Vol.  I,  Letter  XI,  p.  117. 

It  may  be  thought  by  some  that  the  elevation  to  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet,  of 
a  gentleman  who  expresses  himself  with  so  much  warmth  and  fearlessness 
against  one  of  the  "  peculiar  institutions  of  the  South,"  militates  against  our 
idea  that  the  influence  of  the  Federal  Government  is  exerted  in  behalf  of 
slavery.  Singular  as  it  may  appear,  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Paulding  is 
nevertheless  strongly  corroborative  of  the  opinion  we  have  advanced ;  and 
the  explanation  is  at  once  easy  and  amusing.  The  "  Letters  from  the 
South"  were  reprinted  in  1835,  and  form  the  fifth  and  sixth  volumes  of  an 
edition  of  "  Paulding's  works."  The  letter  from  which  we  have  quoted  con 
sists  of  fourteen  pages,  devoted  to  the  subject  of  slavery.  On  turning  to  the 
corresponding  letter  in  the  recent  edition  we  find  it  shrunk  to  three  pages, 
containing  no  allusion  to  the  internal  trade,  nor  anything  else  that  could  of 
fend  the  most  sensitive  Southerner.  In  the  nineteenth  letter,  as  printed  in 
1817,  there  is  not  a  word  about  slavery.  In  the  same  letter,  as  published  in 
1835,  we  meet  with  the  following  most  wonderful  prediction — a  prediction 
that  has  lately  been  cited  in  the  newspapers  as  a  proof  of  the  sagacity  and 
foresight  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy : — 

"  The  second  cause  of  disunion  will  be  found  in  the  slave  population  of 
the  South,  whenever  the  misguided,  or  wilfully  malignant  zeal  of  the  advo 
cates  of  emancipation,  shall  institute,  as  it  one  day  doubtless  will,  a  crusade 
against  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  slave-owners,  by  sending  among  them 
fanatical  agents  and  fanatical  tracts,  calculated  to  render  the  slaves  dis 
affected,  and  the  situation  of  the  master  and  his  family  dangerous  ;  when  ap 
peals  shall  be  made  under  the  sanction  of  religion  to  the  passions  of  these 
ignorant  and  excited  blacks,  calculated  and  intended  to  rouse  their  worst 
and  most  dangerous  passions,  and  to  place  the  very  lives  of  their  masters, 
their  wives,  and  their  children  in  the  deepest  peril;  when  societies  are  formed 
in  the  sister  States  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  virtually  destroying  the  value 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       261 

As  we  are  about  to  enter  into  particulars  respecting  the 
American  slave-trade,  it  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  inquire 
who  are  its  victims.  They  are  native  lorn  Americans.  But  of 
what  color  and  descent  ?  This  will  no  doubt  be  deemed  by 
many  a  very  unnecessary  question ;  and  no  little  indignation 
will  probably  be  excited  when  we  answer  that  large  numbers  of 
these  victims  are  white  men  and  women,  and  the  children  of 
American  citizens. 

People  at  the  North  are  disposed  to  be  incredulous  when  they 
hear  of  white  slaves  at  the  South :  and  yet  a  little  reflection 
would  convince  them  not  only  that  there  must  be  such  slaves 
under  the  present  system,  but  that  in  process  of  time  a  large 
proportion  of  the  slaves  must  be  as  white  as  their  masters. 
Were  there  no  other  sources  of  information  respecting  the  com 
plexions  of  the  southern  slaves,  the  newspaper  notices  of  run- 


of  this  principal  item  in  the  property  of  a  southern  planter  ;  when  it  becomes 
a  question  mooted  in  the  Legislatures  of  the  States,  or  of  the  general  govern 
ment,  whether  the  rights  of  the  master  over  his  slave  shall  be  any  longer 
recognized  or  maintained,  and  when  it  is  at  last  evident  that  nothing  will 
preserve  them  but  secession,  then  will  certain  of  the  stars  of  our  beautiful 
constellation  "  start  madly  from  their  spheres  and  jostle  the  others  in  their 
wild  career." 

In  the  title  of  the  new  edition,  the  date  of  the  "excursion"  is  modestly 
omitted,  but  the  reader  is  not  informed  that  the  spirit  of  prophecy  descended 
upon  the  writer,  not  while  journeying  at  the  South,  but  while  witnessing  in 
New  York  the  operations  of  the  predicted  societies,  and  after  the  city  had 
been  convulsed  by  the  abolition  riots. 

In  1836,  Mr.  Paulding  published  his  "  Slavery  in  the  United  States."  In 
this  work  both  the  Old  and  New  Testament  are  made  to  give  their  sanction 
to  slavery.  Great  Britain,  in  abolishing  slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  is 
charged  with  having  "  committed  robbery  under  cover  of  humanity." — (p. 
51.)  "A  community  of  free  blacks  rising  among  the  ruins  of  States,  lords 
of  the  soil,  smoking  with  the  habitations  and  blood  of  their  exterminated 
masters  and  families,"  would,  we  are  assured,  be  only  fulfilling  "  the  wishes" 
of  the  abolitionists. — (p.  56.)  ,The  advocates  of  immediate  emancipation 
recommend,  it  is  asserted,  "  indiscriminate  marriages  between  the  whites 
and  blacks," — (p.  61),  and  well  educated  respectable  females  amongst  them 
are  apparently  anxious  "  to  become  the  mothers  of  mulattoes." — (p.  62.) 
Slavery,  we  are  told,  "is  becoming  gradually  divested  of  all  its  harsh  fea 
tures,  and  is  now  only  the  bugbear  of  the  imagination, — (p.  26  ;)  and  Mr. 
Paulding  affirms — "  In  a  residence  of  several  years  within  the  District,  and 
a  pretty  extensive  course  of  travel  in  some  of  the  southern  States,  (the  ex 
cursion  in  the  summer  of  1816,  we  suppose,)  we  never  saw  or  heard  of  any 
such  instances  of  cruelty.  We  saio  no  chains  (!)  and  heard  no  stripes." — (p. 

We  trust  our  readers  are  now  fully  convinced  of  this  gentleman's  qualifica 
tions  for  the  office  of  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  con 
sistency  in  appointing  him. 

23 


262  JAY'S  WORKS. 

aways  would  most  abundantly  confirm  our  assertion.     Of  these 
notices,  we  give  the  following  as  samples. 

"  $  100  Reward. — The  above  reward  will  be  paid  for  the  apprehen 
sion  of  my  man  William.  He  is  a  very  bright  mulatto — straight,  yel 
lowish  hair.  I  have  no  doubt  he  will  change  his  name,  and  try  to  pass 
himself  for  a  WHITE  MAN,  which  he  may  be  able  to  do,  unless  to  a 
close  observer. 

August  9.  T.  S.  PICIIARD." 

"  $100  Reward. — Ran  away  from  James  Ilyhart,  Paris,  Kentucky,  on 
the  29th  of  June  last,  the  mulatto  boy  Norton,  about  fifteen  years  old, 
a  very  bright  mulatto,  and  would  be  taken  for  a  WHITE  BOY,  if 
not  closely  examined.  His  hair  is  black  and  straight,  &c." — New 
Orleans  True  American,  llth  August,  1836. 

"  $100  Reward — Will  be  given  for  the  apprehension  of  my  negro  (!) 
Edmund  Kenney.  He  has  straight  hair,  and  complexion  so  nearly 
WHITE,  that  it  is  believed  a  stranger  would  suppose  there  was  no 
African  blood  in  him.  He  was  with  my  boy  Dick  a  short  time  since 
in  Norfolk,  and  offered  him  for  sale,  and  was  apprehended,  but  escaped 
under  pretence  of  being  a  WHITE  MAN. 

ANDERSON  BOWLES. 

Richmond  Whig,  6th  January,  1836." 

"  $50  Reward  will  be  given  for  the  apprehension  and  delivery  to  me 
of  the  following  slaves :  Samuel,  and  Judy  his  wife,  with  their  four 
children,  belonging  to  the  estate  of  Sacker  Dubberly,  deceased. 

I  will  give  $10  for  the  apprehension  of  William  Dubberly,  a  slave 
belonging  to  the  estate.  William  is  about  19  years  old,  QUITE 
WHITE,  and  would  not  readily  be  mistaken  for  a  slave. 

JOHN  T.  LANE. 

Newbern  Spectator,  13th  March,  1837." 

"$100  Reward. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  a  bright  mulatto 
man  slave,  named  Sam.  Light  sandy  hair,  blue  eyes,  ruddy  complexion 
—is  so.  WHITE  as  very  easily  to  pass  for  a  free  \VHITE  MAN. 

EDWIN  PECK. 

Mobile,  April  22,  1837." 

"  $50  Reward. — I  will  give  the  above  reward  of  fifty  dollars  for  the 
apprehension  and  securing  in  any  jail,  so  that  I  get  him  again,  or  de 
livering  to  me  in  Dandridge,  E.  Tenn.,  my  mulatto  boy,  named  Pres 
ton,  about  twenty  years  old.  It  is  supposed  he  will  try  to  pass  as  a 
free  WHITE  MAN. 

Oct.  12,  1838.  JOHN  ROPER." 

"Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  working  on  the  plantation  of  Col.  H. 
Tinker,  a  bright  mulatto  boy,  named  Alfred.  Alfred  is  about  eight 
years  of  age,  pretty  well  grown,  has  blue  eyes,  light  flaxen  hair,  skin  dis 
posed  to  freckle.  He  will  try  to  pass  as  FREE  BORN. 

S.  G.  STEWART. 

Green  County,  Alabama." 


ACTION    OF    TttE     GENERAL    GOVERNMENT.  263 

In  the  New  Orleans  Bee,  of  June  22,  1831,  P.  BAHI  adver 
tises  as  a  runaway,  "  Maria,  with  a  CLEAE  WHITE  com 
plexion  ! " 

Mr.  Paxton,  a  Virginia  writer,  tells  us  in  his  work  on  slavery, 
that  "  the  best  blood  in  Virginia  flows  in  the  veins  of  the 
slaves." 

Dr.  Torrey,  in  his  work  on  domestic  slavery  in  the  United 
States,  p.  14,  says  : 

"  While  at  a  public  house  in  Fredericktown,  there  came  into  the 
bar-room,  on  Sunday,  a  decently  dressed  white  man,  of  quite  a  light 
complexion,  in  company  with  one  who  was  totally  black.  After  they 
went  away,  the  landlord  observed  that  the  white  man  was  a  slave.  I 
asked  him  with  some  surprise  how  that  could  be  possible  ?  To  which 
he  replied,  that  he  was  a  descendant,  by  female  ancestry,  of  an  African 
slave.  He  also  stated,  that  not  far  from  Fredericktown,  there  was  a 
slave  estate  on  which  there  were  several  white  females,  of  as  fair  and 
elegant  appearance  as  white  ladies  in  general,  held  in  legal  bondage  as 
slaves ! ! " 

A  Missouri  paper,  reporting  the  trial  of  a  slave  boy,  remarks : 

"  All  the  physiological  marks  of  distinction  which  characterize  the 
African  descent,  had  disappeared.  His  skin  was  fair,  his  hair  soft, 
straight,  fine  and  white,  his  eyes  blue,  but  rather  disposed  to  the  hazel- 
nut  color,  nose  prominent,  the  lips  small  and  well  formed,  forehead 
high  and  prominent." 

In  the  summer  of  1835,  a  slave-holder  from  Maryland  arrested 
as  his  fugitive  a  young  woman  in  Philadelphia.  A  trial  ensued, 
when  it  was  most  conclusively  proved  that  the  alleged  slave, 
Mary  Gilmore,  was  the  child  of  poor  Irish  parents,  and  had 
not  a  drop  of  African  blood  in  her  veins. 

A  paper  printed  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  the  "  Emporium,"  relates 
a  circumstance  that  occurred  in  that  city,  in  the  following  terms. 

"A  laudable  indignation  was  universally  manifested  among  our 
citizens  on  Saturday  last,  by  the  exposure  of  a  woman  and  two  children 
for  sale  at  public  auction,  at  the  front  of  our  principal  tavern.  The 
woman  and  children  were  as  WHITE  as  any  of  our  citizens:  indeed, 
we  scarcely  ever  saw  a  child  with  a  fairer  or  clearer  complexion  than 
the  younger  one."  Niles's  Register,  June,  1821. 

Mr.  Niles  tells  us,  in  his  Register,  that  Mr.  Calhoun,  the  late 
Vice  President,  had  related  to  him  the  case  of  a  man  "  placed 


264  JAY'S  WOKKS. 

on  the  stand  for  sale  as  a"  slave,  whose  appearance,  in  all  re 
spects,  gave  him  a  better  claim  to  the  character  of  a  WHITE 
MAN,  than  most  persons  so  acknowledged  could  show."  Reg 
ister,  25th  Oct.  1834. 

We  will  now  attempt  to  give  the  reader  some  idea  of  the 
extent  of  the  trade  —  a  trade  in  which  human  beings  of  every 
shade,  from  the  purest  white  to  the  deepest  black,  are  made 
articles  of  merchandise,  and  treated  with  cruelty  little  if  any 
less  than  that  which  has  made  the  African  slave-trade  the  exe 
cration  of  the  civilized  world. 

"  Dealing  in  slaves,"  says  the  Baltimore  Register,  "  has  become  a 
large  business  ;  establishments  are  made  in  several  places  in  Maryland 
and  Virginia,  at  which  they  are  sold  like  cattle :  these  places  of  deposit 
are  strongly  built,  and  well  supplied  with  iron  thumb-screws  and  gags, 
and  ornamented  with  cowskins  and  other  whips,  oftentimes  bloody." 

The  advertisements  of  the  Baltimore  traders  show  that  the 
Maryland  Colonization  Society,  in  their  endeavors  to  suppress 
the  slave-trade,  may  find  a  field  for  their  labors  less  distant  than 
the  coast  of  Africa.  We  annex  some  samples. 

"Austin  Woodfolk,  of  Baltimore,  wishes  to  inform  the  slave-holders 
of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  that  their  friend  still  lives  to  give  cash  and 
the  highest  price  for  negroes,"  &c. 

"General  Slave  Agency  Office.  —  Gentlemen  planters  from  the 
South,  and  others  who  wish  to  purchase  negroes,  would  do  well  to  give 
me  a  call. 

LEWIS  SCOTT." 

"Cash  for  two  hundred  Negroes.  —  The  highest  cash  prices  will  be 
paid  for  negroes  of  both  sexes,  by  application  to  me  or  my  agent,  at 
Booth's  Garden. 

HOPE  H.  SLATER." 

"For  New  Orleans.  —  A  coppered,  copper-fastened  packet-brig, 
Isaac  Franklin,  will  sail  on  the  1st  of  February,  for  Baltimore.  Those 
having  servants  to  ship  will  do  well  by  making  early  application  to 
James  F.  Purvis,"  &c. 

Human  flesh  is  now  the  great  staple  of  Virginia.  In  the 
Legislature  of  this  State,  in  1832,  THOMAS  JEFFERSON  RAN 
DOLPH  declared  that  Virginia  had  been  converted  into  "  one 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       265 

grand  menagerie,  where  men  are  reared  for  the  market  like  oxen 
for  the  shambles."  This  same  gentleman  thus  compared  the 
foreign  with  the  domestic  traffic. 

"  The  trader  (African)  receives  the  slave,  a  stranger  in  aspect,  lan 
guage,  and  manner,  from  the  merchant  who  brought  him  from  the 
interior.  But  here,  sir,  individuals  whom  the  master  has  known  from 
infancy  —  whom  he  has  seen  sporting  in  the  innocent  gambols  of 
childhood  —  who  have  been  accustomed  to  look  to  him  for  protection, 
he  tears  from  the  mother's  arms,  and  sells  into  a  strange  country,  among 
a  strange  people,  subject  to  cruel  taskmasters.  In  my  opinion  it  is  much 
worse" 

Mr.  GHOLSON,  of  Virginia,  in  his  speech  in  the  Legislature 
of  that  State,  January  18,  1831,  (see  Richmond  Whig,)  says : 

"  The  legal  maxim  of  partus  sequitur  ventrem  is  coeval  with  the  ex 
istence  of  the  rights  of  property  itself,  and  is  founded  in  wisdom  and 
justice.  It  is  only  on  the  justice  and  inviolability  of  this  maxim,  that 
the  master  foregoes  the  service  of  the  female  slave,  has  her  nursed  and 
attended  during  the  period  of  her  gestation,  and  raises  the  helpless 
and  infant  offspring.  The  value  of  the  property  justifies  the  expense ; 
and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  in  its  increase  consists  much  of  our 
wealth" 

PROFESSOR  DEW,  now  President  of  the  College  of  William 
and  Mary,  Virginia,  in  his  review  of  the  debate  in  the  Virginia 
Legislature,  1831-2,  speaking  of  the  revenue  arising  from  the 
trade,  says : 

"  A  full  equivalent  being  thus  left  in  the  place  of  the  slave,  this  em 
igration  becomes  an  advantage  to  the  State,  and  does  not  check  the 
black  population  as  much  as  at  first  view  we  might  imagine,  because  it 
furnishes  every  inducement  to  the  master  to  attend  to  the  negroes,  to 
ENCOURAGE  BREEDING,  and  to  cause  the  greatest  number  possible  to  be 
raised.  *  *  Virginia  is,  in  fact,  a  NEGRO-RAISING  STATE  for  other 
States." 

Mr.  C.  F.  MERCER  asserted  in  the  Virginia  Convention  of 
1729: 

"  The  tables  of  the  natural  growth  of  the  slave  population  demon 
strate,  when  compared  with  the  increase  of  its  numbers  in  the  Com 
monwealth  for  twenty  years  past,  that  an  annual  revenue  of  not  less 
than  a  million  and  a  half  of  dollars  is  derived  from  the  exportation  of 
a  part  of  this  population."  Debates,  p.  99. 

23* 


266  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Professor  E.  A.  Andrews  gives  a  conversation  he  had  with  a 
trader  on  board  a  steamboat  on  the  Potomac,  in  1835. 

"  In  selling  his  slaves,  N assures  me  he  never  separates  fami 
lies  ;  but  that  in  purchasing  them  he  is  often  compelled  to  do  so,  for 
that  his  business  is  to  purchase,  and  he  must  take  such  as  are  in  the 
market.  Do  you  often  buy  the  wife  without  the  husband  ?  Yes,  very 
often ;  and  frequently,  too,  they  sell  me  the  mother,  while  they  keep 
the  children.  I  have  often  known  them  take  away  the  infant  from  the 
mother's  breast,  and  keep  it,  while  they  sold  her.  Children  from  one  to 
eighteen  months  old,  are  now  worth  about  one  hundred  dollars."  * 

The  town  of  Petersburg,  in  Virginia,  seems  to  enjoy  a  large 
share  of  this  commerce,  judging  from  the  advertisements  of  its 
merchants. 

"  Cash  for  Negroes.  —  The  subscribers  are  particularly  anxious  to 
make  a  shipment  of  negroes  shortly.  All  persons  who  have  slaves  to 
part  with,  will  do  well  to  call  as  soon  as  possible. 

OVERLY  &  SAUNDERS." 

"  The  subscriber  being  desirous  of  making  another  shipment  by  the 
Brig  Adelaide,  to  New  Orleans,  on  the  first  of  March,  will  give  a  good 
market  price  for  fifty  negroes,  from  ten  to  thirty  years  old. 

HENRY  DAVIS." 

"  The  subscriber  wishes  to  purchase  one  hundred  slaves,  of  both 
sexes,  from  the  age  of  ten  to  thirty,  for  which  he  is  disposed  to  give 
much  higher  prices  than  have  heretofore  been  given.  He  will  caff  on 
those  living  in  the  adjacent  counties  to  see  any  property. 

ANSLEY  DAVIS." 

But  of  all  the  Virginia  merchants,  Mr.  Collier,  of  Richmond, 
seems  to  be  the  most  enterprising.  "VVe  give  extracts  from  his 
Notice : 

"Notice.  —  This  is  to  inform  my  former  acquaintances,  and  the  public 
generally,  that  I  yet  continue  in  the  SLAVE-TRADE,  at  Richmond, 
Virginia,  and  will  at  all  times  buy  and  give  a  fair  market  price  for 
young  negroes.  Persons  in  this  State,  Maryland,  or  North  Carolina, 
wishing  to  sell  lots  of  negroes,  are  particularly  requested  to  forward 
their  wishes  to  me  at  this  place.  Persons  wishing  to  purchase  lots  of 
negroes,  are  requested  to  give  me  a  call,  as  I  keep  constantly  on  hand 
at  this  place,  a  great  many  for  sale ;  and  have  at  this  time  the  use  of 
one  hundred  young  negroes,  consisting  of  boys,  young  men,  and  girls. 
I  will  sell  at  all  times,  at  a  small  advance  on  cost,  to  suit  purchasers. 

*  Slayery  and  the  Domestic  Slave  Trade  in  the  United  States,  p.  147. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       267 

I  have  comfortable  rooms,  with  a  jail  attached,  for  the  reception  of  the 
negroes ;  and  persons  coming  to  this  place  to  sell  slaves,  can  be  accom 
modated,  and  every  attention  necessary  will  be  given  to  have  them 
well  attended  to ;  and  when  it  may  be  desired,  the  reception  of  the 
company  of  gentlemen  dealing  in  slaves  will  conveniently  and  atten 
tively  be  received.  My  situation  is  very  healthy  and  suitable  for  the 
business.  LEWIS  A.  COLLIER," 

Joseph  Wood,  of  Hamburg,  South  Carolina,  a  "gentleman 
dealing  in  slaves,"  advertises  that  he  "  has  on  hand  a  likely 
parcel  of  Virginia  negroes,  and  receives  new  supplies  every  fif 
teen  days" 

li  120  Negroes  for  sale.  —  The  subscriber  has  just  arrived  from  Pe 
tersburg,  Virginia,  with  one  hundred  and  twenty  likely  young  negroes, 
of  both  sexes,  and  every  description,  which  he  offers  for  sale  on  the 
most  reasonable  terms.  The  lot  now  on  hand  consists  of  plough-boys, 
several  likely  and  well-qualified  house  servants,  of  both  sexes,  several 
women  with  small  children,  small  girls,  suitable  for  nurses,  and  several 

SMALL  BOYS  WITHOUT    THEIR    MOTHERS.  BENJAMIN    DAVIS. 

Hamburg,  S.  C.,  Sept.  28,  1838." 

And  what  are  the  pecuniary  results  of  this  commerce  ?  Mr. 
Mercer,  as  we  have  seen,  estimated  the  annual  revenue  to  Vir 
ginia  from  the  export  of  human  flesh,  at  one  million  and  a  half 
of  dollars.  But  this  was  in  1829,  before  the  trade  had  reached 
its  present  palmy  state.  "  The  Virginia  Times,"  in  1836,  in  an 
article  on  the  importance  of  increasing  the  banking  capital  of 
the  Commonwealth,  estimates  the  number  of  slaves  exported 
for  sale  the  "  last  twelve  months,"  at  FORTY  THOUSAND  ;  each 
slave  averaging  six  hundred  dollars,  and  thus  yielding  a  capital 
of  TWENTY-FOUR  MILLIONS,  of  which  the  editor  thinks  at  least 
thirteen  millions  might  be  contributed  for  banking  purposes.* 

In  1837,  a  committee,  appointed  at  a  public  meeting  of  the 
citizens  of  Mobile,  on  the  subject  of  the  existing  pecuniary 
pressure,  in  their  report  stated  : 

"  So  large  has  been  the  return  of  slave  labor,  that  purchases  by 
Alabama,  of  that  species  of  property  from  other  States  since  1833, 
have  amounted  to  TEN  MILLIONS  OF  DOLLARS  ANNUALLY." 


*  Niles's  Register. 


268 

Let  us  now  visit  the  "  Metropolis  of  the  Nation,"  the  very 
heart  of  this  mighty  commerce  in  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men. 
The  District  of  Columbia,  from  its  relative  situation  to  the 
breeding  States,  forms  a  convenient  depot  for  the  negroes,  pre 
vious  to  their  exportation ;  and  the  non-interference  of  Congress 
gives  the  traders  "under  the  exclusive  jurisdiction"  of  the  Fed 
eral  Government,  as  unlimited  power  over  the  treatment  and 
stowage  of  their  human  cargoes,  as  their  brethren  enjoy  on  the 
coast  of  Guinea. 

Hence  large  establishments  have  grown  up  upon  the  national 
domain,  provided  with  prisons  for  the  safe-keeping  of  the  negroes 
till  a  full  cargo  is  procured ;  and  should  at  any  time  the  factory 
prisons  be  insufficient,  the  public  ones,  erected  by  Congress,  are 
at  the  service  of  the  dealers,  and  the  United  States  Marshal 
becomes  the  agent  of  the  slave-trader  ! 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  following  pictures  of  the  scenes 
witnessed  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  are  drawn  by  impartial 
hands.  So  long  ago  as  1802,  the  Grand  Jury  of  Alexandria, 
complaining  of  the  trade,  remarked : 

"  These  dealers  in  the  persons  of  our  fellow-men  collect  within  this 
District,  from  various  parts,  numbers  of  these  victims  of  slavery,  and 
lodge  them  in  some  place  of  confinement  until  they  have  completed 
their  numbers.  They  are  then  turned  out  into  our  streets,  and  exposed 
to  view  loaded  with  chains,  as  tljougli  they  had  committed  some  heinous 
offence  against  our  laws.  We  consider  it  as  a  grievance,  that  citizens 
from  a  distant  part  of  the  United  States  should  be  permitted  to  come 
within  the  District  and  pursue  a  traffic  fraught  with  so  much  misery  to 
a  class  of  beings  entitled  to  our  protection  by  the  laws  of  justice  and 
humanity ;  and  that  the  interposition  of  civil  authority  cannot  be  had 
to  prevent  parents  being  wrested  from  their  offspring,  and  children 
from  their  parents,  without  respect  to  the  ties  of  nature.  We  consider 
these  grievances  demanding  Legistative  redress"  —  that  is,  redress  by 
Congress. 

In  1816,  Judge  Morell,  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United 
States,  in  his  charge  to  the  Grand  Jury  of  Washington,  observed, 
speaking  of  the  slave-trade : 

"  The  frequency  with  which  the  streets  of  the  city  had  been  crowded 
with  manacled  captives,  sometimes  on  the  Sabbath,  could  not  fail  to 
shock  the  feelings  of  all  humane  persons." 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       269 

The  same  year,  JOHN  RANDOLPH  moved  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  for  a  committee 

"  To  inquire  into  the  existence  of  an  inhuman  and  illegal  traffic  of 
slaves  carried  on,  in,  and  through  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  report 
whether  any  or  what  measures  are  necessary  for  putting  a  stop  to  the 
same." 

The  motion  was  adopted ;  had  it  been  made  twenty  years 
later,  it  would,  under  the  rules  of  the  House,  have  been  laid  on 
the  table,  "  and  no  further  action  had  thereon." 

The  Alexandria  Gazette  of  June  22d,  1827,  thus  describes 
the  scenes  sanctioned  by  our  professedly  republican  and  Chris 
tian  Legislature  : 

"  Scarcely  a  week  passes  without  some  of  these  wretched  creatures 
being  driven  through  our  streets.  After  having  been  confined,  and 
sometimes  manacled  in  a  loathsome  prison,  they  are  turned  out  in  pub- 
He  view  to  take  their  departure  for  the  South.  The  children  and 
some  of  the  women  are  generally  crowded  into  a  cart  or  wagon,  while 
others  follow  on  foot,  not  unfrequently  handcuffed  and  chained  together. 
Here  you  may  behold  fathers  and  brothers  leaving  behind  them  the 
dearest  objects  of  affection,  and  moving  slowly  along  in  the  mute  agony 
of  despair  —  there  the  young  mother  sobbing  over  the  infant  whose 
innocent  smiles  seem  but  to  increase  her  misery.  From  some  you  will 
hear  the  burst  of  bitter  lamentation,  while  from  others,  the  loud  hysteric 
laugh  breaks  forth,  denoting  still  deeper  agony." 

In  1828,  a  petition  for  the  suppression  of  this  trade  was  pre 
sented  to  Congress,  signed  by  more  than  one  thousand  inhabitants 
of  this  District. 

In  1829,  the  Grand  Jury  of  Washington  made  a  communica 
tion  to  Congress,  in  which  they  say  : 

"  Provision  ought  to  be  made  to  prevent  purchasers,  for  the  purpose 
of  removal  and  transportation,  from  making  the  cities  of  the  District, 
depots  for  the  imprisonment  of  the  slaves  they  collect.  The  manner 
in  which  they  are  brought  and  confined  in  these  places,  and  carried 
through  our  streets,  is  necessarily  such  as  to  excite  the  most  painful 
feelings.  It  is  believed  that  the  whole  community  would  be  gratified 
by  the  interference  of  Congress  for  the  suppression  of  these  receptacles, 
and  the  exclusion  of  this  disgusting  traffic  from  the  District." 

In  1830,  the  "Washington  Spectator"  thus  gave  vent  to  its 
indignation. 

"  The  slave-trade  in  the  Capital.  —  Let  it  be  known  to  the  citizens  of 
America,  that  at  the  very  time  when  the  procession  which  contained 


270  JAY'S  WORKS* 

the  President  of  the  United  States  and  his  Cabinet  was  marching  in 
triumph  to  the  Capitol,  another  kind  of  procession  was  marching 
another  way  ;  and  that  consisted  of  colored  human  beings,  handcuffed 
in  pairs,  and  driven  along  by  what  had  the  appearance  of  a  man  on 
horseback  !  A  similar  scene  was  repeated  on  Saturday  last ;  a  drove, 
consisting  of  males  and  females,  chained  in  couples,  starting  from  Roly's 
tavern  on  foot  for  Alexandria,  where  with  others  they  are  to  embark 
on  board  a  slave-ship  in  waiting  to  convey  them  to  the  South.  Where 
is  the  O'Connell  in  this  Republic  that  will  plead  for  the  emancipation 
of  the  District  of  Columbia  ?  " 

The  advertisements  of  the  dealers  indicate  the  extent  of  the 

traffic.      The  National   Intelligencer  of   the  28th   of   March, 

1836,  printed  at  Washington,  contained  the  following  adver- 
tisments  : 

"  Cash  for  Jive  hundred  Negroes,  including  both  sexes,  from  ten  to 
twenty-five  years  of  jige.  Persons  having  likely  servants  to  dispose 
of,  will  find  it  their  interest  to  give  us  a  call,  as  we  will  give  higher 
prices  in  cash  than  any  other  purchaser  who  is  now  or  may  hereafter 
come  into  the  MARKET. 

FRANKLIN  &  AMFIELD,  Alexandria." 

"Cash  for  three  hundred  Negroes.  —  The  highest  cash  price  will  be 
given  by  the  subscriber,  for  negroes  of  both  sexes,  from  the  ages  of 
twelve  to  twenty-eight. 

WILLIAM  H.  WILLIAMS,  Washington." 

"  Cash  for  four  hundred  Negroes,  including  both  sexes,  from  twelve 
to  twenty-five  years  of  age. 

JAMES  H.  BIRCH,  Washington  City." 

"  Cash  for  Negroes.  —  We  will  at  all  times  give  the  highest  prices 
in  cash  for  likely  young  negroes  of  both  sexes,  from  ten  to  thirty  years 
of  age, 

J,  W.  NEAL  &  Co.,  Washington." 

Here  we  find  three  traders  in  the  District,  advertising  in  one 
day  for  twelve  hundred  negroes,  and  a  fourth  offering  to  buy  an 
indefinite  number. 

In  a  later  number  of  the  Intelligencer,  we  find  the  following : 

"  Cash  for  Negroes.  —  I  will  give  the  highest  price  for  likely  ne 
groes  from  ten  to  twenty-five  years  of  age. 

GEORGE  KEPHART." 

"Cash  for  Negroes.  —  I  will  give  cash  and  liberal  prices  for  ANY 
number  of  young  and  likely  negroes,  from  eight  to  forty  years  of  age. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       271 

Persons  having  negroes  to  dispose  of  will  find  it  to  their  advantage  to 
give  me  a  call  at  my  residence  on  the  corner  of  Seventh  street  and 
Maryland  Avenue,  and  opposite  Mr.  William's  private  jail. 

WILLIAM  H.  RICHARDS." 

"  Cash,  for  Negroes.  —  The  subscriber  wishes  to  purchase  a  number 
of  Negroes  for  the  Louisiana  and  Mississippi  market.  Himself  or  an 
ao-ent  at  all  times  can  be  found  at  his  jail,  on  Seventh  street. 

WM.  H.  WILLIAMS." 

The  unhappy  beings  purchased  by  these  traders  in  human 
flesh,  men  and  women,  and  children  of  eight  years  old,  are  sent 
to  the  South,  either  over  land  in  coffles,  or  by  sea,  in  crowded 
slavers.  Fostered  by  Congress,  these  traders  lose  all  sense  of 
shame  ;  and  we  have  in  the  National  Intelligencer  the  following 
announcement  of  the  regular  departure  of  three  slavers,  belong 
ing  to  a  single  factory. 

"Alexandria  and  New  Orleans  Packets.  —  Brig  Tribune,  Samuel  C. 
Bush,  master,  will  sail  as  above  on  the  1st  of  January  —  Brig  Isaac 
Franklin,  Wm.  Smith,  master,  on  the  15th  of  January  —  Brig  Uncos, 
Nath.  Boush,  master,  on  the  1st  of  February.  They  will  continue  to 
leave  this  port  on  the  1st  and  15th  of  each  month,  throughout  the  ship 
ping  season.  Servants  that  are  intended  to  be  shipped,  will  at  any  time 
be  received  for  safe-keeping  at  twenty-Jive  cents  a  day. 

JOHN  AMFIELD,  Alexandria." 

This  infamous  advertisement  of  the  regular  sailing  of  three 
slavers,  with  the  offer  of  the  use  of  the  factory  prison,  appears 
in  one  of  the  principal  journals  of  the  United  States.  Its  pro 
prietor  has  several  times  been  chosen  printer  to  Congress,  and 
there  is  no  reason  for  believing  that  he  has  ever  lost  the  vote  of 
a  northern  member  for  this  prostitution  of  his  columns. 

But  the  climax  of  infamy  is  still  untold.  This  trade  in  blood ; 
this  buying,  imprisoning,  and  exporting  of  boys  and  girls  eight 
years  old  ;  this  tearing  asunder  of  husbands  and  wives,  parents 
and  children,  is  all  legalized  in  virtue  of  authority  delegated  by 
Congress  !  !  The  249th  page  of  the  laws  of  the  city  of  Wash 
ington  is  polluted  by  the  following  enactment,  bearing  date  28th 
July,  1838 : 

For  a  LICENSE  to  trade  or  traffic  in  slaves  for  profit,  four  hundred 

1>*CS    '* 


272  JAY' 

A  terrific  feature  of  this  trade  is  the  mortality  it  occasions. 
A  writer  in  the  New  Orleans  Argus  of  1830,  in  an  article  on 
the  sugar  cultivation,  thus  coolly  estimates  one  item  of  expen 
diture. 

"  The  loss  by  death  in  bringing  slaves  from  a  northern  climate, 
which  our  planters  are  under  the  necessity  of  doing,  is  not  less  than 

TWENTY-FIVE  PER  CENT." 

If  the  change  of  climate  be  thus  fatal,  then  those  who  survive 
this  change  must,  of  course,  be  deemed  more  valuable,  as  the 
planters  will  run  less  hazard  in  buying  them  after  having  be 
come  acclimated.  Now  what  language  do  southern  advertise 
ments  hold  on  this  point  ?  We  have  of  course  room  for  only  a 
few  specimens,  but  they  attest  the  superior  value  attached  to 
acclimated  negroes,  and  of  course  the  loss  of  life  attributed  to 
"  bringing  slaves  from  a  northern  climate." 

"  I  offer  my  plantation  for  sale.  Also  seventy-five  acclimated 
negroes.  O.  B.  COBB. 

Vicksburg  Register,  Dec.  27,  1838." 

"  I  will  sell  my  Old  Eiver  plantation,  near  Columbia,  in  Arkansas, 
also  one  hundred  and  thirty  acclimated  negroes.  BEN.  HUGHES. 

Port  Gibson,  14th  Jan." 

"  Probate  Sale. — Will  be  offered  for  sale  at  public  auction  to  the 
highest  hidder  one  hundred  and  thirty  acclimated  slaves. 

G.  W.  KEETON, 

Judge  of  the  Parish  of  Concordia,  La. 
March  22,  1837." 

General  Felix  Houston  advertises  in  the  Natchez  Courier, 
April  6th,  1838,  "Thirty  very  fine  acclimated  negroes." 

But  the  waste  of  life  in  the  process  of  acclimation,  is  but  a 
portion  of  the  mortality  caused  by  this  murderous  traffic.  If  we 
call  to  mind  the  crowded  slavers — the  chained  coffles — the 
dreary  journeys  of  hundreds  of  miles — the  forced  separation  of 
husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children— the  broken  hearts 
and  fevered  brains  of  the  helpless  victims,  we  cannot  question 
that  the  sufferings  of  multitudes  are  shortened  by  a  premature 
death.  We  could  detail  various  suicides,  induced  by  the  horrible 
anticipation  of  this  loathsome  transfer,  but  one  shall  suffice,  and 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       273 

that  related  by  the  present  SECRETARY  OF  THE  NAVY.  This 
gentleman,  in  his  southern  excursion,  fell  in  company  with  a 
coffle-driver,  and  in  the  first  (not  the  last)  editions  of  his  letters 
from  the  South,  gives  the  confessions  made  by  the  wretch  him 
self  in  his  presence. 

"  All  along  the  road,  it  seems,  lie  made  it  his  business  to  inquire 
where  lived  a  man  who  might  be  tempted  to  become  a  party  in  this 
accursed  traffic ;  and  when  he  had  got  some  half  dozen  of  these  poor 
creatures,  Tie  tied  their  hands  behind  their  backs,  and  drove  them  three 
or  four  hundred  miles  or  more,  bareheaded  and  half  naked,  through 
the  burning  southern  sun.  '  I  made  one  bad  purchase  though,'  con 
tinued  he,  '  I  bought  a  young  mulatto  girl,  a  lively  creature,  a  great 
bargain.  She  had  been  the  favorite  of  her  master,  who  had  lately 
married.  The  difficulty  was  to  get  her  to  go,  for  the  poor  creature 
loved  her  master.  However,  I  swore  most  bitterly  I  was  only  going  to 

take  her  to  her  mother's  at ,  and  she  went  with  me,  though  she 

seemed  to  doubt  me  very  much.  But  when  she  discovered,  at  last, 
that  we  were  out  of  the  State,  I  thought  she  would  go  mad,  and,  in 
fact,  the  next  night  she  drowned  herself  in  the  river  close  by.  I  lost  a 
good  five  hundred  dollars  by  this  foolish  trick.'  "  Vol.  I,  p.  121.* 

We  now  put  it  to  the  consciences  of  our  readers,  if  the  facts 
developed  in  the  preceding  pages  do  not  amply  justify  the  fol 
lowing  pregnant  remarks  of  the  editor  of  a  late  New  Orleans 
Journal : 

"  The  United  States  law  (prohibiting  the  African  slave-trade,)  may, 
and  probably  does  put  MILLIONS  into  the  pockets  of  the  people  living 
between  the  Roanoke  and  Mason  ^nd  Dixon's  line  ;  still  we  think  it 
would  require  some  casuistry  to  show  that  the  present  slave-trade  from 
that  quarter  is  a  whit  better  than  the  one  from  Africa."  New  Orleans 
Courier,  15th  Feb.  1839. 

Such  is  the  character  and  extent  of  the  American  slave-trade, 
impudently  and  wickedly  called  by  the  Senate,  "  the  coasting 
trade," — a  trade  protected  and  regulated  by  the  very  govern 
ment  which  in  the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  with  wonderful  assurance, 
declared  that "  the  traffic  in  slaves  is  irreconcilable  with  the  prin 
ciples  of  justice  and  humanity." 

The  government  may  be  fairly  said  to  protect  the  trade,  when 
it  refuses  to  exercise  its  constitutional  power  to  suppress  it. 

*  It  was  not,  it  would  seem,  till  the  honorable  Secretary  turned  politician, 
that  he  discovered  that  slavery  is  now  "  only  the  bugbear  of  the  imagina 
tion." 

24 


274  JAY'S  WORKS. 

The  very  fact  that  slave-traders  are  licensed  in  the  District,  is  a 
full  and  complete  acknowledgment  that  there  is  authority  com 
petent  to  forbid  their  nefarious  business.  The  continuance  of 
the  traffic  under  the  immediate  and  "  exclusive  jurisdiction"  of 
the  National  Government,  stamps  with  sin  and  disgrace  every 
member  of  Congress  who  assents  to  it ;  and  more  especially, 
and  with  peculiar  infamy,  those  northern  members  wrho,  for 
party  purposes,  vote  that  "  Congress  ought  not  in  any  ivay  to  in 
terfere  with  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia." 

But  we  are  constantly  told  by  the  apologists  of  slavery  that 
the  American  slave-trade  is  beyond  the  constitutional  control  of 
the  Federal  Government;  yet  that  government  abolished  the 
African  slave-trade,  and  no  human  being  ever  questioned  its 
right  to  do  so.  But  whence  was  that  right  derived  ?  Solely 
from  the  8th  Section  of  the  1st  Article  of  the  Constitution,  viz. : — 

"  Congress  shall  have  power  to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  na 
tions,  and  among  the  several  States." 

In  virtue  of  this  delegation  of  power  Congress  has  made  it  a 
capital  crime  to  carry  on  commerce  in  African  slaves.  Now 
this  legislative  prohibition  of  the  traffic  is  constitutional,  is 
proved  by  the  highest  possible  authority,  even  the  Constitution 
itself;  for  that  instrument,  after  giving  Congress  power  to  regu 
late  commerce  with  foreign  nations,  restricts  it  from  abolishing 
the  African  slave-trade  before  the  expiration  of  twenty  years.* 
To  regulate,  we  are  told,  does  not  include  the  power  to  destroy ; 
yet  it  seems  the  power  to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  na 
tions  does  include  the  power  to  interdict  an  odious,  cruel,  and 
wicked  branch  of  it.  By  what  logic  then  will  it  be  shown  that 
the  power  to  regulate  the  commerce  among  the  several  States, 

*  The  phraseology  of  this  restriction  shows  that  it  was  intended  to  limit 
the  power  to  regulate  commerce  as  well  "  among  the  several  States"  as  with 
foreign  nations.  "  The  migration,  or  importation  of  such  person  as  any  of 
the  existing  States  shall  think  proper  to  admit,  shall  not  be  prohibited  by 
the  Congress  prior  to  the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eight." — 
Art.  1,  Sec.  9.  If  any  State  should  think  proper  to  admit  slaves  migrating 
from  another  State,  it  was  not  to  be  restrained  from  doing  so  till  1808.  If  it 
should  think  proper  to  import  slaves  from  a  foreign  country,  it  might  do  so, 
notwithstanding  the  wishes  of  Congress,  till  the  same  period. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       275 

does  not  include  the  power  to  interdict  a  traffic  in  men,  women, 
and  children  ?  Is  it  more  wicked,  more  base,  more  cruel,  to 
traffic  in  African  savages  than  in  native  born  Americans — in 
WHITE  men,  and  women,  and  children — in  the  offspring  of  our 
own  citizens,  and  not  unfrequently,  of  very  distinguished  citizens  ? 
Yet  it  is  this  abominable  commerce  that  our  government  fosters 
and  protects.  We  have  seen  its  watchful  guardianship  over 
this  trade  in  its  unceasing  endeavors  to  obtain  compensation  from 
Great  Britain  for  two  hundred  and  eighty-seven  slaves  thrown 
by  the  winds  and  waves  under  her  protection.  Mr.  Van  Buren, 
our  Minister  in  England,  in  an  official  note  on  this  subject,  (Feb. 
25,  1832,)  remarked: — 

"  The  Government  of  the  United  States  respecting  the  actual  and 
unavoidable  condition  of  things  at  home,  while  it  most  sedulously  and 
rigorously  guards  against  the  further  introduction  of  slaves,  protects  at 
the  same  time  by  reasonable  laws  the  rights  of  the  owners  of  that  spe 
cies  of  property  in  the  States  where  it  exists,  and  permits  its  transfer 
coastwise  from  one  of  these  States  to  another,  under  suitable  re 
strictions  to  prevent  the  fraudulent  introduction  of  foreign  slaves." 

By  the  act  of  Congress  of  March  2d,  1807,  masters  of  vessels 
under  forty  tons  burden,  are  forbidden  to  transport  coastwise 
from  one  port  to  another  in  the  United  States  any  person  of 
color  to  be  sold  or  held  as  a  slave,  under  the  penalty  of  $800 
for  each  slave  so  transported. 

By  the  same  act,  masters  of  vessels,  over  forty  tons  burden, 
sailing  coastwise  from  one  port  to  another,  and  intending  to 
transport  persons  of  color  to  be  sold  or  held  as  slaves,  must  first 
make  out  duplicate  manifests,  specifying  the  names,  age,  sex, 
and  stature  of  the  persons  transported,  and  the  names  and  resi 
dence  of  their  owner  or  shipper.  These  manifests  are  to  be 
delivered  to  the  collector  of  the  port,  who  is  to  retain  one  and 
return  the  other  to  the  master,  with  "  a  permit "  endorsed  on  it, 
"  authorizing  him  to  proceed  to  the  port  of  destination."  If  the 
master  presumes  to  transport  a  slave  without  such  permit,  not 
only  is  the  vessel  forfeited,  but  the  master  is  to  pay  a  penalty  of 
$1000  for  each  slave  shipped.  On  the  arrival  of  the  vessel  at 
the  port  of  destination,  the  manifest,  with  the  permit,  is  to  be 
handed  to  the  collector,  who  thereupon  is  to  grant  a  "permit" 


'276  JAY'S  WORKS. 

for  the  landing  of  the  slaves,  and  if  any  are  landed  without  such 
permit,  the  master  forfeits  one  thousand  dollars.  So  it  seems 
Congress  may  prohibit  the  slave-trade  in  vessels  under  forty 
tons  ;  but  according  to  northern  politicians,  it  would  be  uncon 
stitutional  to  prohibit  it  in  vessels  over  forty  tons  ;  and  according 
to  the  slave-holders,  such  a  prohibition  would  cause  a  dissolution 
of  the  Union  !  But  alas  !  the  permission,  regulation,  and  pro 
tection  of  this  traffic  is  in  perfect  keeping  with 


THE    DUPLICITY    OF    THE     FEDERAL    GOVERNMENT     IN   REGARD 
TO    THE    SUPPRESSION    OF     THE    AFRICAN    SLAVE-TRADE. 

The  great  struggle  for  the  abstract  principles  of  human  lib 
erty  in  which  our  fathers  engaged  with  so  much  zeal,  had,  at 
the  close  of  the  revolutionary  war,  excited  a  very  general  con 
viction  of  the  injustice  of  slavery.  When  the  convention 
appointed  to  form  a  Federal  Constitution  assembled,  the  north 
ern  and  many  of  the  southern  delegates  were  disposed  to  give 
the  new  government  such  unqualified  power  over  the  commerce 
of  the  nation,  as  would  enable  it  to  abolish  a  traffic  no  less  at 
variance  with  our  republican  professions  than  with  the  precepts 
of  humanity  and  religion.  A  portion  of  the  southern  delegates, 
however,  insisted  on  a  temporary  restriction  of  this  power  as 
the  price  of  their  adhesion  to  the  Union  ;  and  their  threat  of 
marring  the  beauty,  symmetry,  and  strength  of  the  fair  fabric 
about  to  be  erected,  by  withdrawing  from  it  the  support  of  the 
States  they  represented,  unfortunately  induced  the  convention  to 
yield  to  their  wishes,  and  to  insert  in  the  Constitution  a  clause 
restraining  Congress  from  abolishing  the  African  slave-trade 
for  twenty  years.  Mr.  Madison  has  left  us  the  following  his 
tory  of  this  iniquitous  clause. 

"  The  southern  States  would  not  have  entered  into  the  union  of 
America  without  the  temporary  permission  of  that  trade.  The  gentle 
men  from  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  argued  in  this  manner :  • '  We 
have  now  liberty  to  import  this  species  of  property,  and  much  of  the 
property  now  possessed  has  been  purchased,  or  otherwise  acquired  in 
contemplation  of  improving  it  by  the  assistance  of  imported  slaves. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       277 

What  would  be  the  consequence  of  hindering  us  from  it  ?  The  slaves 
of  Virginia  would  rise  in  value,  and  we  should  be  obliged  to  go  to 
your  markets/  "  Debates  in  Virginia  Convention. 

We  have  here  the  solution  of  much  contradictory  action  on 
the  part  of  slave-holders  in  regard  to  this  trade.  It  seems  to 
have  been  early  discovered  that  its  abolition  would  be  advan 
tageous  to  the  slave-breeders,  but  not  to  the  slave-buyers. 
Owing  to  climate,  soil,  and  productions,  slave-labor  is  less  prof 
itable  in  Maryland  and  Virginia  than  in  the  more  southern 
States ;  hence  the  greater  demand  for  this  labor  in  the  latter 
States  has,  since  the  cessation  of  importation,  caused  a  constant 
influx  of  slaves  from  the  former.  The  breeders  in  Maryland 
and  Virginia  have,  for  the  most  part,  striven  in  good  faith  for 
the  total  suppression  of  the  African  trade ;  while  those  who 
originally  refused  to  enter  the  Union  unless  permitted,  for  at 
least  twenty  years,  to  import  their  slaves  directly  from  Africa, 
hove  since  evinced  very  little  desire  to  secure  to  their  neighbors 
the  monopoly  of  the  market. 

Whenever  the  opponents  of  abolition  find  it  convenient  to  re 
fer  to  the  action  of  the  Federal  Government  on  the  subject  of 
slavery,  they  laud  and  magnify  its  horror  of  the  African  slave- 
trade,  and  exultingly  point  to  the  law  of  Congress,  branding  it 
with  the  penalties  of  piracy.  And  yet  we  are  inclined  to  believe 
that  the  conduct  of  our  government  in  relation  to  this  very  sub 
ject,  is  one  of  the  foulest  stains  attached  to  our  national  admin 
istration.  Has  the  trade  been  suppressed  ?  Has  the  Federal 
Government  in  good  faith  endeavored  to  suppress  it  ?  These 
are  important  questions,  and  we  shall  endeavor  to  solve  them  by 
an  appeal  to  facts  and  official  documents. 

In  a  debate  in  Congress  in  1819,  Mr.  Middleton,  of  South 
Carolina,  stated  that  in  his  opinion,  13,000  Africans  were  annu 
ally  smuggled  into  the  United  States.  Mr.  Wright,  of  Virginia, 
estimated  the  number  at  15,000.  The  same  year,  Judge  Story, 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  a  charge  to  a 
grand  jury,  thus  expresses  himself: — 

"  We  have  but  too  many  proofs  from  unquestionable  sources,  that 
it  (the  African  trade)  is  still  carried  on  with  all  the  implacable  feroci- 

24* 


278  JAY'S  WORKS. 

ty  and  insatiable  rapacity  of  former  times.  Avarice  has  grown  more 
subtle  in  its  evasions,  and  watches  and  seizes  its  prey  with  an  appetite 
quickened  rather  than  suppressed  by  its  guilty  vigils.  American  citi 
zens  are  steeped  to  their  very  mouths  (I  can  scarcely  use  too  bold  a 
figure,)  in  this  stream  of  iniquity." 

On  the  22d  of  January,  1811,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
wrote  to  the  commanding  naval  officer  at  Charleston  : 

"  I  hear,  not  without  great  concern,  that  the  law  prohibiting  the  im 
portation  of  slaves  has  been  violated  in  frequent  instances,  near  St. 
JVIary's,  since  the  gun-boats  have  been  withdrawn  from  that  station." 

On  the  14th  of  March,  1814,  the  collector  of  Darien,  Georgia, 
thus  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  : 

"  I  am  in  possession  of  undoubted  information,  that  African  and 
West  India  negroes  are  almost  daily  illicitly  introduced  into  Georgia, 
for  sale  or  settlement,  or  passing  through  it  to  the  territories  of  the 
United  States,  for  similar  purposes.  These  facts  are  notorious,  and  it 
is  not  unusual  to  see  such  negroes  in  the  streets  of  St.  Mary's ;  and  such 
too,  recently  captured  by  our  vessels  of  war,  and  ordered  for  Savan 
nah,  were  illegally  bartered  by  hundreds  in  that  city,  for  this  bartering 
(or  bonding,  as  it  is  called,  but  in  reality  selling,)  actually  took  place 
before  any  decision  had  passed  by  the  court  respecting  them.  I  can 
not  but  again  express  to  you,  sir,  that  these  irregularities  and  mockings 
of  the  laws  by  men  who  understand  them,  are  such  that  it  requires  the 
immediate  interposition  of  Congress  to  effect  the  suppression  of  this 
traffic ;  for  as  things  are,  should  a  faithful  officer  of  the  Government 
apprehend  such  negroes,  to  avoid  the  penalties  imposed  by  the  laws, 
the  proprietors  disclaim  them,  and  some  agent  of  the  Executive  demands 
a  delivery  of  the  same  to  him,  who  may  employ  them  as  he  pleases,  or  ef 
fect  a  sale  of  them  by  way  of  bond  for  restoration  of  the  negroes  when 
legally  called  on  so  to  do,  which  bond  is  understood  to  be  forfeited,  as  the 
amount  of  the  bond  is  so  much  less  than  the  value  of  the  property. 
After  much  fatigue,  peril,  and  expense,  eighty-eight  Africans  are  seized 
and  brought  to  the  surveyor  at  Darien  ;  they  are  demanded  by  the 
Governor's  agent.  Notwithstanding  the  knowledge  which  his  excellen 
cy  had  that  these  very  Africans  were  some  weeks  within  six  miles  of  his 
excellency's  residence,  there  was  no  effort,  no  stir  made  by  him,  his 
agents  or  subordinate  state  officers,  to  carry  the  laws  into  execution ; 
but  no  sooner  was  it  understood  that  a  seizure  had  been  effected  by  an 
officer  of  the  United  States,  than  a  demand  is  made  for  them  ;  and  it 
is  not  difficult  to  perceive,  that  the  very  aggressors  may,  by  a  forfeiture 
of  the  mock  bond,  be  again  placed  in  possession  of  the  smuggled  prop 
erty." 

In  1817,  General  David  B.  Mitchell,  Governor  of  Georgia, 
resigned  the  Executive  chair,  and  accepted  the  appointment, 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       279 

under  the  Federal  Government,  of  Indian  Agent  at  the  Creek 
Agency.  He  was  afterwards  charged  with  being  concerned,  in 
the  winter  of  1817  and  1818,  in  the  illegal  importation  of  Afri 
cans.  The  documents  in  support  of  the  charge,  and  those  also 
which  he  offered  to  disprove  it,  were  placed  by  the  President 
in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Wirt,  the  Attorney- General  of  the  United 
States,  who,  on  the  21st  of  January,  1821,  made  a  report  on 
the  same.  From  this  report,  it  appears  that  no  less  than  ninety- 
four  Africans  were  smuggled  into  Georgia,  and  carried  to 
Mitchell's  residence.  Mr.  Wirt  concludes  his  report  with  the 
expression  of  his  conviction, 

"  That  Gen.  Mitchell  is  guilty  of  having  prostituted  his  power  as 
Agent  for  Indian  Affairs  at  the  Creek  Agency,  to  the  purpose  of  aid 
ing  and  assisting  in  a  conscious  breach  of  the  Act  of  Congress  of  1807, 
in  prohibition  of  the  slave-trade,  and  this  from  mercenary  motives."* 

On  the  22d  of  May,  1817,  the  Collector  at  Savannah  wrote 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury : 

"  I  have  just  received  information  from  a  source  on  which  I  can  im 
plicitly  rely,  that  it  lias  already  become  the  practice  to  introduce  into 
the  State  of  Georgia,  across  St.  Mary's  River,  from  Amelia  Island,  E. 
Florida,  Africans  who  have  been  carried  into  the  port  of  Ferdinanda. 
It  is  further  understood  that  the  evil  will  not  be  confined  altogether  to 
Africans,  but  will  be  extended  to  the  worst  class  of  West  India  slaves." 

Captain  Morris,  of  the  Navy,  informed  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  18th  of  June,  1817  : 

"  Slaves  ^are  smuggled  in  through  the  numerous  inlets  to  the  west 
ward,  where  the  people  are  but  too  much  disposed  to  render  every  possible 
assistance.  Several  hundred  slaves  are  now  in  Galveston,  and  persons 
have  gone  from  New  Orleans  to  purchase  them." 

On  the  17th  of  April,  1818,  the  Collector  at  New  Orleans 
wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury : 

"  No  efforts  of  the  officers  of  the  customs  alone  can  be  effectual  in 
preventing  the  introduction  of  Africans  from  the  westward  :  to  put  a 
stop  to  that  traffic,  a  naval  force  suitable  to  those  waters  is  indispensa 
ble  ;  and  vessels  captured  with  slaves  ought  not  to  be  brought  into  this 
port,  but  to  some  other  in  the  United  States,  for  adjudication." 

*  Senate  Papers,  1st  Session,  17th  Cong.,  No.  93. 


280  JAY'S  WORKS. 

"We  may  learn  the  cause  of  this  significant  hint,  from  a  com 
munication  made  the  9th  of  July,  in  the  same  year,  to  the  Secre 
tary,  by  the  Collector  at  Nova-Iberia. 

"  Last  summer  I  got  out  State  warrants,  and  had  negroes  seized  to 
the  number  of  eighteen,  which  were  part  of  them  stolen  out  of  the 
custody  of  the  coroner ;  the  balance  were  condemned  by  the  District 
Judge,  and  the  informers  received  their  part  of  the  net  proceeds  from 
the  State  Treasurer.  Five  negroes  that  were  seized  about  the  same 
time,  were  tried  at  Opelousa  in  May  last,  by  the  same  judge.  He 
decided  that  some  Spaniards  that  were  supposed  to  have  set  up  a  sham 
claim,  stating  that  the  negroes  had  been  stolen  from  them  on  the  high 
seas,  ( ! ! )  should  have  the  negroes,  and  that  the  persons  who  seized 
them  should  pay  half  the  costs,  and  the  State  of  Louisiana  the  other. 
This  decision  had  such  an  effect  as  to  render  it  almost  impossible  for 
me  to  obtain  any  assistance  in  that  part  of  the  country." 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  a  letter  to  the  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  20th  January,  1819,  remarked  : 

"  It  is  understood  that  proceedings  have  been  instituted  under  the 
State  authorities,  which  have  terminated  in  the  SALE  of  persons  of  color 
illegally  imported  into  the  States  of  Georgia  and  Louisiana,  during  the 
years  1817  and  1818.  There  is  no  authentic  copy  of  the  acts  of  the 
Legislatures  of  these  States  upon  this  subject  in  this  department,  but  it 
is  understood  that  in  both  States,  Africans  and  other  persons  of  color, 
illegally  imported,  are  directed  to  be  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the  State"* 

We  have  now,  we  think,  proved  from  high  authority,  that 
notwithstanding  the  legal  prohibition  of  the  slave-trade,  the 
people,  the  courts,  and  the  executive  authority  in  the  planting 

*  In  1835,  the  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce  asserted  that  vessels  had 
been  recently  fitted  out  in  that  port  for  the  African  slave-trade. 

The  Boston  Express,  of  17th  December,  1838,  thus  gives  the  substance  of 
the  statements  made  by  Mr.  Elliott  Cresson,  of  the  Pennsylvania  Coloniza 
tion  Society,  in  a  public  address  delivered  a  few  days  before  in  Boston  : 

"  Out  of  177  slave  ships  which  arrive  at  Cuba  every  year,  five-sixths  are 
owned  and  fitted  out  from  ports  in  the  United  States,  and  the  enormous 
profits  accruing  from  their  voyages  remitted  to  this  country.  One  house  in 
New  York  received  lately  for  its  share  alone  the  sum  of  $250.000.  Baltimore 
is  largely  interested  in  this  accursed  traffic  as  well  as  New  York  —  and  even 
Boston,  with  all  her  religion  and  morality,  does  not  disdain  to  increase  her 
wealth  by  a  participation  in  so  damnable  a  business.  A  gentleman  of  the 
highest  respectability  lately  informed  Mr.  Cresson  that  a  sailor  in  this  city 
told  him  that  he  had  received  several  hundred  dollars  of  hush  money,  to 
make  him  keep  silent,  and  when  he  mentioned  the  names  of  his  employers, 
the  gentleman  says  he  was  actually  afraid  to  repeat  them,  so  high  do  they 
stand  in  society.  A  captain  in  the  merchant  service,  from  New  York,  was 
lately  offered  his  own  terms  by  two  different  houses,  provided  he  would  under 
take  a  slave  voyage." 

Of  the  truth  of  these  statements  we  know  nothing. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       281 

States,  have  afforded  facilities  for  the  importation  of  Africans. 
It  now  becomes  important  to  inquire  how  far  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  has  enforced  the  penalties  imposed  by  the  Act  forbid 
ding  the  trade. 

On  the  7th  of  January,  1819,  Joseph  Nourse,  Register  of  the 
Treasury,  in  an  official  document  submitted  to  Congress,  certified 
that  there  were  no  records  in  the  Treasury  Department  of  any 
forfeitures  under  the  act  of  1807,  abolishing  the  slave-trade ! 
So  that  notwithstanding  the  thirteen  or  fifteen  thousand  slaves, 
said  by  Southern  members  of  Congress  to  be  annually  smuggled 
into  the  United  States  —  notwithanding  American  citizens  were 
declared  by  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  to  be  "  steeped  to 
their  very  mouths  in  this  stream  of  iniquity,"  not  one  single  for 
feiture  had  in  eleven  years  reached  the  Treasury  of  the  United 
States  !  Mr.  Nourse,  however,  states  that  it  was  understood 
that  there  had  been  recently  two  forfeitures,  one  in  South  Caro 
lina,  and  the  other  in  Alabama.  Respecting  the  first,  we  have 
no  information ;  of  the  latter,  we  are  able  to  present  the  follow 
ing  extraordinary  history. 

The  Collector  at  Mobile,  writing  Nov.  15,  1818,  to  the  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury,  remarks  : 

"  Should  West  Florida  be  given  up  to  the  Spanish  authorities,  both 
the  American  and  Spanish  vessels,  it  is  to  be  apprehended,  will  be  em 
ployed  in  the  importation  of  slaves,  with  an  ultimate  destination  to  this 
country ;  and  even  in  its  present  situation,  the  greatest  facilities  are 
afforded  for  obtaining  slaves  from  Havana  and  elsewhere  through 
West  Florida.  Three  vessels,  it  is  true,  were  taken  in  the  attempt  last 
summer,  but  this  was  owing  rather  to  accident  than  any  well-timed 
arrangement  to  prevent  the  trade." 

These  three  vessels  brought  in  one  hundred  and  seven  slaves. 
By  what  mistake  they  were  captured  we  are  not  informed,  but 
another  letter  from  the  collector  shows  us  how  the  "  accident " 
was  remedied. 

"  The  vessels  and  cargoes  and  slaves  have  been  delivered  on  bonds  ; 
the  former  to  the  owners,  and  the  slaves  to  three  other  persons.  The 
Grand  Jury  found  true  bills  against  the  owners  of  the  vessels,  masters 
and  supercargo,  all  of  whom  have  been  discharged  —  why  or  wherefore, 
I  cannot  say,  except  that  it  could  not  be  for  want  of  proof  against 
them." 


282 

From  this  letter  it  is  most  probable  that  the  forfeiture  of  which 
Mr.  Nourse  had  heard,  if  any  in  fact  occurred,  was  the  collusive 
forfeiture  of  the  bonds.* 

We  most  freely  acknowledge  that  so  far  as  the  statute  book  is 
to  be  received  as  evidence,  there  can  be  no  question  of  the  sin 
cerity  and  zeal  with  which  the  Federal  Government  has  labored 
to  suppress  the  African  slave-trade  :  but  laws  do  not  execute 
themselves,  and  we  shall  now  appeal  to  the  statute  book,  and  to 
the  minutes  of  Congress,  to  convict  the  government  of  gross 
hypocrisy  and  duplicity. 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  why  men  who  are  engaged  in 
breeding  slaves  for  the  market,  or  why  men  who  are  employed 
in  buying  and  working  slaves,  should  have  any  moral  or  religious 
scruples  about  the  African  trade ;  and  when  we  find  political 
leaders  professing  to  be  ready  to  sacrifice  the  Union  to  secure 
the  perpetuity  of  the  American  trade,  we  may  surely  be  excused 
for  doubting  the  sincerity  of  their  denunciations  against  the  for 
eign  traffic. 

In  the  year  1817,  a  new  and  sudden  zeal  was  excited  in  Con 
gress  for  the  abolition  of  the  trade,  and  this  zeal,  as  we  shall  see, 
was  the  offspring  of  the  efforts  of  Virginia  to  colonize  the  free 
blacks.  The  Legislature  of  that  State  had  for  years  been  anx 
ious  to  get  rid,  not  of  the  slaves,  but  of  the  free  negroes.  On 
the  1st  of  January,  1817,  the  Colonization  Society,  the  result  of 
Virginia  policy,  was  organized  at  Washington,  and  immediately 
presented  a  memorial  to  Congress,  praying  for  national  coun 
tenance.  The  committee  to  whom  this  memorial  was  referred, 
reported  (llth  Feb.)  two  resolutions:  —  1st,  calling  on  the 
President  to  enter  into  negotiations  with  foreign  powers  for  the 
"  entire  and  immediate  abolition  of  the  traffic  in  slaves  ;  "  and 
2d,  asking  him  to  obtain  the  consent  of  Great  Britain  to  our 
colonizing  free  people  of  color  at  Sierra  Leone.  Thus  early 
was  the  cause  of  colonization  connected  with  the  agitation  in 
Congress  about  the  slave-trade ;  a  connection  from  which,  as  we 
shall  presently  see,  the  Society  reaped  a  very  large  pecuniary 

*  The  documents  we  have  quoted  on  this  subject,  are  to  be  found  in  Re 
ports  of  Committees.      1st  Sess.,  21st  Cong.,  No.  348. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       283 

advantage.  The  resolutions  were  not  acted  on,  and  the  next 
session,  Mr.  Mercer,  regarded  in  Virginia  as  the  father  of  the 
Society,  succeeded  in  getting  a  vote  of  the  House  (Dec.  30th, 
1817,)  instructing  the  committee  on  the  memorial  from  the 
Society,  to  report  on  the  expediency  of  rendering  the  laws 
against  the  slave-trade  more  effectual.  Of  this  committee  Mr. 
Mercer  was  himself  the  chairman ;  and  he  recommended  in  his 
report,  that  the  President  should  take  measures  for  procuring 
suitable  territory  in  Africa  for  colonizing  free  people  of  color, 
with  their  own  consent ;  and  that  armed  vessels  should  occasion 
ally  be  sent  to  Africa  for  the  purpose  of  interrupting  the  trade. 
The  suggestions  of  the  committee  were  not  adopted,  but  the 
ensuing  session,  (March  3,  1819,)  a  new  act  against  the  slave- 
trade  was  passed,  which  gave  "  a  local  habitation  "  to  the  pres 
ent  colony  of  Monrovia,  and  was  equivalent  to  a  liberal  and 
national  grant  to  the  Society.  By  this  act,  the  President  was 
authorized  to  restore  to  their  country,  such  Africans  as  might  be 
captured  on  board  of  slavers,  or  illegally  introduced  into  the 
United  States ;  and  he  was  to  appoint  agents  on  the  coast  to 
receive  them.  Mr.  Monroe,  then  President  of  the  United  States, 
was  a  zealous  colonizatiomst,  and  was  afterwards  placed  at  the 
head  of  an  auxiliary.  Let  us  see  what  use  he  made  of  the 
powers  entrusted  to  him  by  the  act  of  1819.  Many  years  after, 
an  inquiry  was  instituted  in  Congress  as  to  the  expenditures 
under  this  law,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  (1830,)  reported 
that 

"  Two  hundred  and  fifty-two  persons*  of  this  description  (recaptured 
Africans,)  have  been  removed  to  the  settlement  provided  by  the  Colo 
nization  Society  on  the  coast  of  Africa;  and  that  there  had  been 

*  "We  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain  from  what  sources  these  Africans 
were  obtained,  but  that  they  were  not  all  of  them  trophies  of  the  zeal  of  our 
cruisers  in  the  cause  of  humanity,  appears  from  the  following  extracts  from 
official  documents  :  "  There  are  now  in  the  charge  of  the  Marshal  of  Georgia, 
248  Africans,  taken  out  of  a  South  American  privateer,  the  'General  Ramirez,' 
whose \crew  mutinied,  and  brought  the  vessel  into  St.  Mary's,  Georgia."  Letter 
of  Secretary  of  Navy,  February  7th,  1821.  "A  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
in  the  case  of  the  '  General  Ramirez,'  placed  under  the  control  of  the  Gov 
ernment  from  125  to  130  Africans,  who  were  brought  into  Georgia,  and  ar 
rangements  are  making  to  send  them  to  the  Agency." — (Liberia.)  Report  of 
Secretary  of  Navy,  Dec.  2d,  1825. 


284  JAY'S  WORKS. 

expended  therefor,  the  sura  of  two  hundred  and  sixty-four  thousand 
seven  hundred  and  ten  dollars.  *  *  *  The  practice  has  been  to 
furnish  these  persons  with  provisions  for  a  period  of  time  after  being 
landed  in  Africa,  varying  from  six  months  to  one  year ;  to  provide 
them  with  houses,  arms  and  ammunition ;  to  pay  for  the  erection  of 
fortifications,  for  the  building  of  vessels  for  their  use,  and,  in  short,  to 
render  all  the  aid  required  for  the  founding  and  support  of  a  colonial 
establishment." 

A  report  from  Amos  Kendall,  Fourth  Auditor  of  the  Treas 
ury,  discloses  more  particularly  the  manner  in  which  the  "Act 
in  addition  to  the  Acts  prohibiting  the  slave-trade"  was  made 
subservient  to  the  purposes  of  the  Colonization  Society. 

"  In  May,  1822,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  directed  that  ten  liberated 
Africans  should  be  delivered  to  Mr.  J.  Ashmun  for  transportation  to 
Africa.  The  Secretary  authorized  him  to  take  out,  at  the  expense  of 
the  Government,  15,000  hard  brick,  5,000  feet  of  assorted  timber,  30 
barrels  of  ship  bread,  eight  of  tar,  four  of  pitch,  four  of  rosin,  and  two 
of  turpentine."  *  *  *  "In  the  simple  grant  of  power  to  an  agent 
to  receive  recaptured  negroes,  it  requires  broad  construction  to  find  a 
grant  of  authority  to  colonize  them,  to  build  houses  for  them,  to  furnish 
them  with  farming  utensils,  to  pay  instructors  to  teach  them,  to  purchase 
ships  for  their  commerce,  to  build  forts  for  their  protection,  to  supply 
them  with  arms  and  munitions,  and  to  employ  the  army  and  navy  in 
their  defence."* 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  friends  of  colonization  had  great 
encouragement  to  proceed  in  their  warfare  against  the  slave- 
trade.  Accordingly,  Mr.  Mercer,  as  the  chairman  of  the  com 
mittee  to  whom  a  memorial  from  the  Society  had  been  referred, 
reported  (May  9th,  1820,)  a  bill  incorporating  the  Society,  and 
another  making  the  slave-trade  piracy  ;  and  likewise  two  resolu 
tions,  the  first,  requesting  the  President  to  negotiate  with  foreign 
powers,  "on  the  means  of  effecting  an  entire  and  immediate 
abolition  of  the  slave-trade  ;  "  and  another  requesting  him  to  make 
such  use  of  the  public  armed  vessels  as  may  aid  the  efforts  of 
the  Colonization  Society.  The  first  resolution  was  adopted,  and 
the  consideration  of  the  other  postponed.  A  few  days  after, 
(May  15th,)  the  Act  making  the  African  slave-trade  piratical, 
was  passed.  But  laws  do  not  execute  themselves  :  and  if  any 

*  Senate  Documents,  2Sess.,  2  Cong. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       285 

slave-trader  has  suffered  death  in  the  United  States  as  a  pirate, 
we  confess  our  ignorance  of  the  fact.* 

It  certainly  required  some  little  assurance  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  thus  to  order  a  negotiation  with  foreign  powers 
for  the  suppression  of  the  trade,  when  the  Federal  Government 
had  itself  been  so  remiss  in  its  efforts,  that  both  Houses  of  the 
British  Parliament  had,  the  year  before,  (July,  1819,)  addressed 
the  Prince  Regent,  praying  him  to  renew  "  his  beneficent  en 
deavors,  more  especially  with  the  Governments  of  France  and 
the  United  States  of  America,  for  the  effectual  attainment  of  an 
object  we  all  profess  to  have  in  view : "  and  a  negotiation  had 
already  been  actually  commenced  with  our  Government,  propos 
ing  to  concede  "  to  each  other's  ships  of  war,  a  qualified  right 
of  search,  with  a  power  of  detaining  the  vessels  of  either  State, 
with  slaves  actually  on  board ;  "  |  and  a  positive  refusal  to  this 
proposal  had  already  been  returned.  There  is  no  evidence  that 
our  Government  ever  took  a  single  measure  in  consequence  of 
this  resolution ;  and  under  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  it 
is  not  uncharitable  to  believe  that  it  was  intended  to  save  ap 
pearances. 

.We  must  now  beg  the  reader's  attention  to  a  new  act  in  this 
farce  of  suppressing  the  slave-trade. 

In  1814,  our  government  concluded  a  war  with  Great  Britain, 
and  in  the  treaty  of  peace,  gave  its  assent  to  the  following 
article  : 

"  Whereas  the  traffic  in  slaves  is  irreconcilable  with  the  principles  of 
humanity  and  justice;  and  whereas  His  Majesty  and  the  United 

*  In  1820,  a  slave  vessel,  the  Science,  fitted  out  at  New  York,  and  com 
manded  by  Adolphe  Lacoste,  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  was  captured  on 
the  coast  of  Africa,  by  the  United  States  ship  Cyane,  and  Lacoste  sent  home 
for  trial.  The  trial  took  place  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States, 
before  Judge  Story.  The  evidence  was  full  and  unequivocal ;  Lacoste  was 
convicted,  and  sentenced  to  five  years'  imprisonment,  and  to  the  payment  of 
a  fine  of  $3,000.  Had  the  crime  been  committed  a  few  months  later,  the 
penalty  Avould  have  been  death,  under  the  new  law,  declaring  the  trade 
piracy.  Lacoste  received  a  full  pardon  from  the  President ;  and  the  reader 
may  thence  judge,  whether,'had  he  been  convicted  as  a  pirate,  his  life  would 
have  been  much  in  danger.  The  reasons  assigned  for  the  pardon  were  youth, 
previous  good  character,  and  an  aged  mother.  Niles's  Register,  April  20, 
1822. 

fLetter  from  Lord  Castlereagh  to  Mr.  Rush,  June  20,  1818. 
25 


286 

States  are  desirous  of  continuing  their  efforts  to  promote  its  entire  ab 
olition,  it  is  hereby  agreed,  that  both  the  contracting  parties  shall  use 
their  best  endeavors  to  accomplish  so  desirable  an  object." 

On  the  29th  of  January,  1823,  Mr.  Stratford  Canning,  the 
British  Minister  at  Washington,  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Secre 
tary  of  State,  reminding  him  of  this  pledge,  and  calling  on  the 
American  Government  either  to  assent  to  the  plan  proposed  by 
Great  Britain,  or  to  suggest  some  other  efficient  one  in  its  place. 
After  the  reception  of  this  letter,  and  before  the  return  of  an 
answer,  the  following  resolution  was  passed  (28th  Feb.)  by  the 
House  of  Representatives,  viz. : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be  requested 
to  enter  upon  and  prosecute,  from  time  to  time,  such  negotiations  with 
the  several  maritime  powers  of  Europe  and  America,  as  he  may  deem 
expedient,  for  the  effectual  abolition  of  the  African  slave-trade,  and  its 
ultimate  denunciation  as  piracy,  under  the  laws  of  nations,  by  the  con 
sent  of  the  civilized  world" 

The  British  Minister  was  then  informed,  in  answer  to  his 
letter,  that  the  plan  proposed  by  the  United  States  was  a  mutual 
stipulation  to  annex  the  penalty  of  piracy  to  the  offence  of  par 
ticipating  in  the  trade,  by  the  citizens  and  subjects  of  the  two 
parties.  Mr.  Canning  replied,  that 

"  Great  Britain  desires  no  other,  than  that  any  of  her  subjects  who 
so  far  defy  the  laws  and  dishonor  the  character  of  their  country  as  to 
engage  in  a  trade  of  blood,  proscribed  not  more  by  the  act  of  the 
Legislature  than  by  the  national  feeling,  should  be  detected  and  brought 
to  justice  even  by  foreign  hands,  and  from  under  the  protection  of  her 
flag." 

He,  nevertheless,  urged  a  limited  concession  of  the  right  of 
search,  as  the  only  practical  cure  of  the  evil ;  and  he  communi 
cated  the  fact,  that  so  late  as  January,  1822,  it  was  stated  offi 
cially  by  the  Governor  of  Sierra  Leone,  "  that  the  fine  rivers  of 
Nunez  and  Pongas  were  entirely  under  the  control  of  renegade 
European  and  American  slave-traders."  He  then  proposed  that 
a  mutual  right  of  search  should  be  conceded,  to  be  confined  to 
a  fixed  number  of  cruisers  on  each  side ;  to  be  restricted  to 
certain  parts  of  the  ocean ;  and  that  to  prevent  abuses,  these 
cruisers  should  act  under  regulations  prepared  by  mutual  con- 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       287 

sent ;  and  moreover,  that  this  concession  should  be  made  only 
for  a  short  time,  that  if  found  inconvenient  in  practice,  it  might 
be  discontinued.*  . 

But  the  Republic  stood  on  its  dignity,  and  would  not  conde 
scend  to  yield  a  concession  which  Great  Britain,  France,  Spain, 
Portugal,  the  Netherlands,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Tuscany,  the 
Hans  Towns,  Naples,  and  Sardinia,  have  thought  it  no  degrada 
tion  to  make  in  the  cause  of  humanity. 

But  still  the  American  Government  was  very  anxious  that 
every  man  of  every  nation,  who  engaged  in  the  traffic  of  slaves 
on  the  coast  of  Africa,  (not  in  the  District  of  Columbia,)  should 
be  hung  by  the  neck  till  he  was  dead ;  and  forthwith,  in  obedi 
ence  to  the  resolution  of  February  28,  despatches  were  forward 
ed  to  the  Cabinets  of  France,  Spain,  Portugal,  Russia,  the 
Netherlands,  Buenos  Ayres,  and  Colombia,  announcing  the  de 
sire  of  the  United  States  to  declare  the  trade  piracy,  by  the 
common  consent  of  nations. 

It  is  generally  understood  that  a  pirate  is  an  enemy  to  the 
human  race,  and  may  be  put  to  death  by  any  government  in 
whose  hands  he  may  chance  to  fall.  If  this  was  not  the  purport 
of  the  proposition  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  that  the 
trade  should  be  denounced  "as  PIRACY  under  the  laws  of  nations, 
by  the  consent  of  the  civilized  world"  we  may  well  ask,  what  did 
it  mean  ? 

On  the  24th  of  June,  1823,  instructions  were  forwarded  to 
our  Minister  in  England,  authorizing  him  to  conclude  a  treaty 
with  Great  Britain  on  the  subject  of  the  slave-trade,  on  certain 
conditions.  "  The  draft  of  a  convention,"  says  the  Secretary  of 
State,  "  is  herewith  enclosed,  which,  IF  the  British  Government 
should  agree  to  treat  upon  this  subject,  on  the  basis  of  a  legisla 
tive  prohibition  of  the  slave-trade  by  both  parties  under  the 
penalties  of  PIRACY,  you  are  authorized  to  propose  and  con 
clude." 

Now  it  should  be  remembered  that  at  this  time  the  trade  was 
not  piratical  by  the  British  laws,  and  the  English  Ministry  could 
not  make  it  so  by  treaty.  We  therefore  proposed  a  condition 

*  Letter  from  Mr.  Stratford  Canning,  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  April  18, 
1823. 


288  JAY'S  WORKS. 

with  which  possibly  they  might  not  have  it  in  their  power  to 
comply.  The  ministry,  however,  when  made  acquainted  with 
the  condition,  felt  confident  of  the  acquiescence  of  Parliament. 
"  The  British  Plenipotentiaries,"  says  Mr.  Rush,  in  his  letter  to 
the  Secretary  of  State,  "  gave  their  unhesitating  consent  to  the 
principle  of  denouncing  the  traffic  as  piracy,  provided  we  could 
arrive  at  a  common  mind  on  all  the  other  parts  of  the  plan 
proposed."  „, 

The  treaty,  nearly  verbatim  with  the  draft  sent  from  Wash 
ington,  was  signed  at  London  on  the  13th  of  March,  1824 ;  and 
a  few  days  afterwards,  according  to  a  previous  understanding, 
and  in  fulfilment  of  the  condition  exacted  by  us,  Parliament 
passed  an  act,  declaring  that  all  British  subjects  found  guilty  of 
slave-trading  "  shall  suffer  death  without  benefit  of  clergy,  and 
loss  of  lands,  goods  and  chattels,  as  PIRATES,  felons  and  robbers 
upon  the  seas,  ought  to  suffer." 

This  treaty  provided,  in  substance,  that  the  cruisers  of  either 
party  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  America,  and  the  West  Indies, 
may  seize  slaves  under  the  flag  of  the  other,  and  send  them 
home  to  the  country  to  which  they  belonged,  where  they  should 
be  proceeded  against  as  pirates.  So  that  in  fact,  the  whole  con 
cession  made  by  us  to  Great  Britain  amounted  to  no  more  than 
permitting  her  to  arrest  our  pirates,  and  to  deliver  them  to  our 
courts  for  trial ;  and  in  return,  she  granted  us  precisely  the  same 
right  with  respect  to  her  pirates. 

The  treaty  was  submitted  of  course  to  the  Senate  for  ratifica 
tion,  Xvhich,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  one  would 
think,  must  have  followed  as  a  matter  of  course.  The  Senate, 
however,  thought  otherwise.  The  treaty  was  laid  before  them 
on  the  30th  of  April ;  but  as  they  delayed  to  act  upon  it,  the 
British  Minister  at  Washington  became  uneasy,  and  on  the  1 6th 
of  May  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  complain 
ing  of  the  postponement  of  the  ratification,  especially  as  the 
project  of  the  convention  had  originated  with  the  United  States, 
and  as  Great  Britain  "had  not  hesitated  an  instant  to  comply 
with  the  preliminary  act  desired  by  the  President,"  the  legisla 
tive  prohibition  of  the  slave-trade  under  the  penalties  of  piracy- 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       289 

The  President  naturally  feeling  his  own  good  faith  comprom- 
itted  by  the  hesitation  of  the  Senate,  now  sent  them  a  confiden 
tial  message,  urging  the  ratification  of  the  treaty.  He  remarked 
that  the  rejection  of  the  treaty  would  subject  the  Executive, 
Congress,  and  the  nation, 

"  To  the  charge  of  insincerity  respecting  the  great  result  of  the  final 
suppression  of  the  slave-trade.  To  invite  all  nations,  with  the  statute 
of  piracy  in  our  hands,  to  adopt  its  principles  as  the  law  of  nations,  and 
yet  to  deny  to  all  the  common  rights  of  search  for  the  pirate,  whom  it 
would  be  impossible  to  detect  without  entering  and  searching  the  ves 
sels,  would  expose  us  not  simply  to  the  charge  of  inconsistency." 

The  Senate,  after  long  debates,  finally  ratified  the  treaty,  in  a 
mutilated  form.  They  struck  out  the  word  "  America,"  in  the 
clause  authorizing  the  seizure  of  slavers  on  "  the  coasts  of  Af 
rica,  America,  and  the  West  Indies."  They  also  expunged  the 
articles  applying  the  provision  of  the  treaty  to  vessels  chartered, 
as  well  as  owned  by  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  either  party;  and 
to  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  either  party  carrying  on  the  trade 
under  foreign  flags ;  and  they  added  an  article  authorizing 
either  party  to  terminate  the  treaty  at  any  time,  on  giving  six 
months'  notice. 

It  will  have  been  observed,  from  the  documents  we  have 
quoted,  that  the  slaves  imported  into  the  United  States,  have 
been  chiefly  introduced  through  the  Spanish  possessions  on  our 
southern  frontiers,  slavers  direct  from  Africa  rarely  having  the 
hardihood  to  enter  our  ports,  and  discharge  the  cargoes  ;  while 
small  vessels  from  the  West  Indies  have  occasionally  found 
their  way  into  the  southern  waters.  Of  course  the  treaty  as 
altered  by  the  Senate,  would  afford  but  little  interruption  to  this 
mode  of  stocking  the  plantations  of  Louisiana  and  the  neigh 
boring  States. 

As  chartered  vessels  were  excepted,  our  traders  would  only 
have  to  hire  slavers  instead  of  owning  them,  to  be  exempted 
from  the  hazard  of  being  arrested  and  sent  home  for  trial,  by 
British  officers  ;  or  even  if  on  board  their  own  vessels,  by  run 
ning  up  &  foreign  flag,  they  would  escape  the  penalties  of  piracy. 

25* 


290  JAY'S  WORKS. 

The  British  Cabinet  refused  to  agree  to  the  treaty  thus 
despoiled  of  all  its  efficiency ;  but  with  wonderful  simplicity,  they 
proposed  to  restrict  the  right  of  search  on  the  coast  of  America, 
to  the  coast  of  the  southern  States.  This  proposition  was  of 
course  promptly  rejected  by  our  Minister  in  England. 

The  British  Government,  vainly  cherishing  the  hope  that  the 
United  States  might  still  consent  to  some  combined  effort  to 
destroy  a  trade  they  professed  to  abhor,  offered,  through  their 
Minister  at  Washington,  to  consent  to  a  treaty,  word  for  word 
the  same  as  the  one  the  Senate  had  ratified,  with  the  single  ex 
ception  of  restoring  the  word  "  America."  To  this,  Mr.  Clay, 
then  Secretary  of  State,  replied,  that 

"  From  the  views  entertained  by  the  Senate,  it  would  seem  unneces 
sary  and  inexpedient  any  longer  to  continue  the  negotiation  respecting 
the  slave  convention,  with  any  hope  that  it  can  assume  a  form  satisfac 
tory  to  both  parties.  That  a  similar  convention  had  been  formed  with 
Colombia,  on  the  10th  of  December,  1824,  excepting  that  the  coast  of 
America  was  excepted  from  its  operation  ;  and  yet,  notwithstanding 
this  conciliatory  feature,  the  Senate  had  by  a  large  majority  refused  to 
ratify  it." '* 

Negotiations  have  since  been  renewed  on  this  subject ;  and 
France  has  united  with  Great  Britain,  in  urging  the  Cabinet  at 
Washington  to  cooperate  with  them  in  putting  an  end  to  the 
African  slave-trade.  The  correspondence  has  not  been  made 
public,  but  we  learn  from  the  Edinburgh  Review,  for  July,  1836, 
that  the  final  answer  of  the  American  Government  is,  that 

"Under  no  condition,  in  no  form,  and  with  no  restriction,  will  the 
United  States  enter  into  any  convention,  or  treaty,  or  combined  efforts  of 
any  sort  or  kind  with  other  nations,  for  the  suppression  of  this  trade" 

To  our  readers  we  leave  the  task  of  making  their  own  com 
ments  on  this  history  of  duplicity  and  hypocrisy ;  and  proceed 
to  other  details. 

On  the  2d  of  November,  1825,  the  Colombian  Minister  at 
Washington,  in  the  name  of  his  government,  invited  the  United 
States  to  send  delegates  to  a  Congress  of  the  South  American 

*  The  documents  quoted  on  this  subject,  maybe  found  in  the  State  Papers, 
1st  Sess.,  19  Cong.,  vol.  1 ;  and  in  Reports  of  Committees,  1st  Sess  .  21 
Cong.,  vol.  3,  No.  348. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       291 

Republics,  to  be  held  at  Panama.     In  enumerating  the  topics 
to  be  discussed  in  the  proposed  Congress,  he  remarked : 

"  The  consideration  of  means  to  be  adopted  for  the  entire  abolition 
of  the  African  slave-trade,  is  a  subject  sacred  to  humanity,  and  interest 
ing  to  the  policy  of  the  American  States.  To  effect  it,  their  energetic, 
general  and  uniform  cooperation  is  desirable.  At  the  proposition  of 
the  United  States,  Colombia  made  a  convention  with  them  on  this  sub 
ject,  which  has  not  been  ratified  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States. 
Would  that  America,  which  does  not  think  politic  what  is  unjust,  might 
contribute  in  union,  and  with  common  consent,  to  the  good  of  Africa  ! " 

This  document  was  submitted  to  the  Senate,  and  on  the  16th 
of  January,  1826,  a  committee  of  the  Senate  made  a  report  in 
relation  to  it,  in  which  they  observe  : 

"  The  United  States  have  not  certainly  the  right,  and  ought  never  to 
feel  the  inclination  to  dictate  to  others  who  may  differ  with  them  on 
this  subject,"  (the  slave-trade,)  "  nor  do  the  committee  see  the  expedi 
ency  of  insulting  other  States  by  ascending  the  moral  chair,  and  pro 
claiming  from  thence  mere  abstract  principles,  of  the  rectitude  of  which 
each  nation  enjoys  the  perfect  right  of  deciding  for  itself." 

The  remarks  made  on  this  occasion  by  Mr.  White,  a  Senator 
from  Tennessee,  are  worthy  of  observation. 

"  In  these  new  States  (the  South  American  Republics,)  some  of  them 
have  put  it  down  in  their  fundamental  law,  '  that  whoever  owns  a  slave 
shall  cease  to  be  a  citizen.'  Is  it  then  fit  that  the  United  States  should 
disturb  the  quiet  of  the  southern  and  western  States  upon  any  subject 
connected  with  slavery  ?  I  think  not.  Can  it  be  the  desire  of  any 
prominent  politician  in  the  United  States,  to  divide  us  into  parties  upon 
the  subject  of  slavery  ?  I  hope  not.  Let  us  then  cease  to  talk  about 
slavery  in  this  House ;  let  us  cease  to  negotiate  upon  any  subject  con 
nected  with  it." 

We  have  seen  most  abundantly  that  slave-holders  have  no 
objection  to  talk  about  slavery  in  Congress,  or  to  negotiate  about 
it  with  foreign  nations,  when  the  object  is  to  guard  their  beloved 
institution  from  danger.  It  is  only  on  the  abominations  of  the 
system,  and  the  means  of  removing  it,  that  every  tongue  must 
be  mute,  and  the  Federal  Government  passive.  As  that  gov 
ernment  refuses  to  enter  into  any  combined  efforts  for  the  sup 
pression  of  this  trade,  and  makes  none  of  its  own,  we  may 
reasonably  suppose  that  our  citizens  are  now  largely  engaged  in 
it.  Let  us  see  if  this  supposition  accords  with  facts. 


292 


PRESENT   PARTICIPATION    OF  CITIZENS  OF   THE  UNITED  STATES 
IN    THE   AFRICAN    SLAVE-TRADE. 

In  pursuance  of  a  treaty  with  Spain,  certain  commissioners 
are  appointed  by  Great  Britain  to  reside  at  Havana.  On  the 
25th  of  October,  1836,  these  commissioners  wrote  to  their 
government : 

"  To  our  astonishment  and  regret,  we  have  ascertained  that  the  Ana 
conda  and  Viper,  the  one  on  the  6th,  and  the  other  on  the  10th,  current, 
cleared  out  and  sailed  from  here  for  the  Cape  de  Verd  Islands  under 
the  AMERICAN  flag.  These  two  vessels  arrived  at  the  Havana,  fitted 
in  every  particular  for  the  slave-trade,  and  took  on  board  a  cargo 
which  would  alone  have  condemned  as  a  slaver,  any  vessel  belonging 
to  the  nations  that  are  parties  to  the  equipment  article." 

They  remark  that  the  declaration  of  the  American  President 
not  to  make  the  United  States  a  party  to  any  convention  on  the 
subject  of  the  slave-trade, 

11  Has  been  the  means  of  inducing  American  citizens  to  build  and  fit 
in  their  ports  vessels  only  calculated  for  piracy,  or  the  slave-trade  —  to 
enter  this  port,  and  in  concert  with  the  Havana  slave-traders,  to  take 
on  board  a  prohibited  cargo,  manacles,  &c.,  and  proceed  openly  to  that 
notorious  depot  for  this  iniquitous  traffic,  the  Cape  de  Verd  Island, 
under  shelter  of  the  national  flag  ;  and  we  may  add,  that  while  these 
AMERICAN  SLAVERS  were  making  their  final  arrangements  for  de 
parture,  the  Havana  was  visited  more  than  once  by  American  ships  of 
war." 

This  statement  and  others  we  are  are  about  to  present  to  the 
reader,  explain  the  practical  results,  and  probably  the  secret  mo 
tives  of  the  rejection  by  the  Senate  of  the  slave-trade  convention 
with  Great  Britain.  The  commissioners  proceed  : 

"  Two  AMERICAN  vessels,  the  Fanny  Butler  and  Rosanna,  have  pro 
ceeded  to  the  Cape  de  Verd  Islands  and  the  coast  of  Africa,  under  the 
AMERICAN  flag,  upon  the  same  inhuman  speculation.  *  *  *  We 
cannot  conceal  our  deep  regret  at  the  NEW  and  DREADFUL  impetus 
imparted  to  the  slave-trade  of  this  island,  by  the  manner  in  which  some 
American  citizens  impunibly  violate  every  law,  by  embarking  openly 
for  the  coast  of  Africa  under  their  NATIONAL  flag,  with  the  avowed 
purpose  of  bringing  slaves  to  this  market.  We  are  likewise  assured 
that  it  is  intended,  by  means  of  this  flag,  to  supply  slaves  for  the  vast 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       293 

province  of  TEXAS  ;  agents  from  there  being  in  constant  communica 
tion  with  the  Havana  slave  merchants."* 

"VVe  are  fearful  of  trespassing  upon  the  patience  of  the  reader 
while  we  enter  into  the  details  necessary  to  demonstrate  the 
increased  activity  given  to  the  trade  by  the  action  of  the  Federal 
Government ;  but  these  details  are  essential  to  an  exhibition  of 
the  horrible  duplicity  of  the  government,  and  the  foul  disgrace  in 
which  the  flag  of  the  Republic  is  steeped,  by  being  made  the 
segis  of  the  very  wretches  whom  our  legislators  pretend  to  regard 
as  pirates. 

We  learn  from  Buxton's  late  work  on  the  present  state  of  the 
trade,  that 

"  The  Venus,  said  to  be  sharpest  clipper  built  vessel  ever  constructed 
at  Baltimore,  left  that  place  in  July,  1838,  and  arrived  at  Havana  on 
the  4th  of  the  August  following.  She  sailed  from  thence  in  September 
for  Mozambique  ;  there  she  took  a  cargo  of  slaves,  being  all  this  time 
under  the  flag  of  the  United  States.  On  the  7th  of  January,  1839,  she 
landed  8GO  negroes  near  Havana  under  Portuguese  colors,"  p.  23. 

In  certain  documents,  lately  published  by  the  British  Parlia 
ment  we  have  the  names  of  eleven  vessels,  which  sailed  under 
the  flag  of  the  United  States,  from  Havana  to  Africa  for  slaves 
in  1837,  and  of  nineteen  more,  which  sailed  in  1838.  Major 
McGregor,  special  magistrate  for  the  Bahamas,  in  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Buxton  mentions  the  wreck  of  the  schooner  Invincible,  a 
slaver,  on  the  28th  of  October,  1837,  and  adds : 

"  The  captain's  name  was  Potts,  a  native  of  Florida.  The  vessel 
was  fitted  out  at  Baltimore  in  America,  and  three-fourths  of  the  crew 
were  natives  of  the  United  States,  although  they  pretended  to  be  only 
passengers." 

The  major  also  mentions  another  slaver,  with  a  cargo  of  1 60 
Africans,  being  wrecked  on  one  of  the  islands,  and  says : 

"This  pretended  Portuguese  vessel  was  fitted  out  at  Baltimore, 
United  States,  having  been  formerly  a  pilot  boat,  called  the  Wash 
ington.  The  supercargo  was  an  American  citizen  of  Baltimore,' 
pp.  23,  186. 

*  Buxton's  African  Slave  Trade,  p.  21. 


294  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Mr.  Mitchel  Thompson,  an  officer  on  board  the  British  ship- 
of-war  Sappho,  thus  wrote  at  Jamaica  in  the  spring  of  1839,  to 
a  gentleman  of  Philadelphia : 

"  Almost  half  the  vessels  employed  in  this  trade  and  furnished  to 
either  the  Spaniards  or  the  Portuguese  are  from  America,  and  seem  to 
have  been  built  at  Baltimore,  from  which  place  they  sail  chartered  for 
some  port  in  Cuba  with  lumber;  which  lumber  is  converted  into 
slave-decks  on  their  arrival  at  the  destined  port.  To  this  is  now  added 
copper,  casks,  and  food,  with  the  necessery  slave  irons ;  and  now  also  is 
added  the  requisite  number  of  Spaniards  as  part  complement  of  the 
ship's  company ;  with  American  papers  and  flag,  they  escape  our  cruis 
ers,  as  the  concession  of  the  right  of  mutual  search  has  not  been  made  by 
America." 

A  recent  letter  from  an  officer  of  the  British  ship-of-war 
Pelican,  published  in  the  London  papers,  mentions  that  this  ship 
had  lately  captured  an  AMERICAN  schooner,  the  Octavia  of 
Baltimore,  with  220  slaves. 

The  editor  of  the  Baltimore  Chronicle  states  that  Captain 
McDonald,  of  the  brig  North,  just  arrived  from  Africa,  reported 
that  the  Captain  of  the  British  brig  of  war  Partaga,  told  him 
in  [conversation,  that  they  had  fallen  in  with  several  vessels 
which  had  the  appearance  of  being  slavers,  but  having  American 
colors  and  papers  furnished  by  the  Consul  at  Havana,  he  had  to 
let  them  pass ;  but  afterwards  he  fell  in  with  them  with  slaves 
on  board,  that  being  proof  positive  of  their  true  character. 

Mr.  Buchanan,  Governor  of  Liberia,  in  a  letter  written  from 
the  colony,  and  published  in  the  New  York  Journal  of  Com 
merce  of  July  6,  1839,  says : 

"  Never  was  the  AMERICAN  FLAG  so  extensively  used  by  those 
pirates  upon  liberty  and  humanity  as  at  present.  Probably  THREE- 
FOURTHS  of  the  vessels  boarded  by  the  English  cruisers  and  found  to 
be  slavers  are  PROTECTED  by  American  PAPERS  AND  THE  AMERICAN 
FLAG.* 


*  The  American  and  Russian  flag  bear  very  different  relations  towards  the 
African  slave-trade.  On  the  2d  of  April,  1836,  the  Russian  Consul  in  New 
York,  published  in  the  papers,  by  special  instructions  from  his  Government, 
a  "  Consular  Notice,"  in  which  he  declared  that  "  no  slave-trader,  in  any 
circumstances  whatever,  when  seized  under  the  Russian  flag,  or  otherwise, 
can  invoke  the  aid  of  the  Imperial  Government  to  screen  him  from  just  and 
well-merited  punishment." 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       295 

In  the  spring  of  1839,  three  American  slavers  were  captured 
by  British  cruisers,  and  carried  into  Sierra  Leone.  They  were 
the  Clara,  Wyoming,  and  Eagle,  and  all  under  AMERICAN  cap 
tains,  and  furnished  with  AMERICAN  papers.  They  had  no 
slaves  on  board,  but  were  fitted  up  for  the  trade,  having  slave- 
decks,  manacles,  &c.,  &c. 

At  Sierra  Leone  it  was  decided  that  the  English  courts  had 
no  jurisdiction  over  these  vessels,  and  of  course  that  their  cap 
ture  was  unauthorized.  But  inasmuch  as  the  character  of  the 
vessels  was  obvious,  and  they  were  engaged  in  a  trade  declared 
piratical  by  the  American  Congress,  it  was  deemed  both  prudent 
and  friendly  to  send  them  home  for  trial,  and  they  arrived  at 
New  York  in  June  last,  under  the  charge  of  a  British  ship- 
of-war.  A  more  unwelcome  present  could  not  have  been 
offered  to  the  Federal  Government  than  these  three  slavers. 
An  acceptance  of  them  would  have  involved  various  inconve 
nient  consequences.  In  the  first  place  the  President  would  have 
been  compelled,  by  a  due  regard  to  the  feelings  of  his  southern 
constituents,  to  inquire  by  what  authority  British  officers  had 
presumed  to  arrest  these  ships,  interrupt  their  voyages,  and 
transport  them  across  the  Atlantic,  contrary  to  the  known  and 
recorded  will  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  This  would 
have  led  to  an  embarrassing  negotiation,  and  likewise  to  a  very 
undesirable  discussion  in  the  newspapers,  and  would  probably 
have  strengthened  the  hostility  at  the  North  to  slavery  and  the 
slave-trade.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  government  acqui 
esced  in  this  treatment  of  American  slavers,  then  our  courts 
would  be  occupied  in  trials  in  which  it  would  be  impossible  to 
avoid  touching  upon  "  the  delicate  subject,"  and  men  might  be 
sentenced  to  the  gallows,  merely  for  buying  and  selling  their 
fellow-men.  It  would  moreover  be  permitting  Great  Britain  to 
do  without  a  treaty  what  she  had  entreated  us  to  permit  her  to 
do  by  treaty,  and  which  we  had  refused.  An  expedient  was 
was  adopted  which  avoided  these  embarrassments.  The  Gov 
ernment,  it  is  said,  thought  proper  not  to  recognize  these  ships  as 
American  property,  and  therefore  declined  receiving  them.  By 
this  course  all  public  judicial  investigations  and  disclosures  were 


296  JAY'S  WORKS. 

prevented ;  and  the  whole  matter  was  hushed  up  as  quickly  as 
possible.  The  avowed  reasons  for  this  decision  have  not  been 
made  public. 

"We  will  now  recall  to  the  recollection  of  our  readers  the  re 
mark  of  the  British  commissioners,  that  "  while  the  American 
slavers  were  making  their  final  arrangements  for  departure,  the 
Havana  was  visited  more  than  once  by  American  ships-of-war." 
In  other  words  our  naval  officers  showed  no  disposition  to  arrest 
such  of  their  countrymen  as  were  engaged  in  the  slave-trade, 
and  to  send  them  home  for  trial  and  punishment.  It  no  doubt 
seems  very  strange  to  foreigners  that  the  American  navy  should 
be  so  exceedingly  remiss  in  seconding  the  zeal  of  the  Federal 
Government  in  suppressing  the  slave-trade  —  but  it  is  a  trite 
remark  that  foreigners  cannot  understand  our  institutions  —  the 
conduct  of  the  navy  is  perfectly  natural,  and  precisely  such  as 
might  rationally  be  expected.  We  have  no  knowledge  of  any 
slaver  having  been  molested  by  an  American  armed  vessel  for 
the  last  fifteen  years.  It  is  not  necessary  for  our  cruisers  to  go  to 
Africa  to  capture  slavers.  The  trade  passes  our  very  doors, 
and  slavers  are  to  be  found  by  those  who  look  for  them  off  the  port 
of  Baltimore,  and  along  the  shores  of  Cuba  and  Texas. 

The  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce,  speaking  of  the  seizure 
of  slavers  by  British  cruisers,  remarks  : 

"  The  capture  of  a  slaver  by  an  American  cruiser  is  a  thing  unheard 
of  for  many  years,  and  wholly  unexpected.  Scores  of  slave-vessels 
are  caught  every  year  by  British  cruisers,  and  we  will  not  do  our 
national  vessels  the  injustice  to  suppose  that  they  never  could  catch 
any,  if  they  were  so  disposed" 

But  why-  should  they  be  "  so  disposed  ?  "  About  one-half  of 
our  naval  officers  are  the  sons  of  slave-holders,  and  can  we  ex 
pect  that  they  will  voluntarily  assist  in  bringing  men  to  the 
gibbet  for  trading  in  African  savages,  while  their  own  fathers 
are  engaged  in  buying  and  selling  their  fellow-countrymen  ? 

Again,  pecuniary  reward,  professional  promotion,  and  public 
applause,  are  the  chief  incentives  to  military  enterprise.  Our 
officers  have  been  recently  taught  that  efforts  to  capture  or  de 
stroy  fugitive  slaves  will  be  liberally  rewarded  from  the  national 
treasury ;  but  when  have  they  been  paid  for  capturing  slavers  ? 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.        297 

It  is  natural  that  our  young  and  ardent  officers  should  pant 
for  promotion,  and  that  they  should  turn  their  anxious  and  ex 
pectant  gaze  upon  the  dispenser  of  professional  favors,  the  SEC 
RETARY  OF  THE  NAVY.  Should  they  read  this  gentleman's 
work,  "  Slavery  in  the  United  States,"  they  will  have  little  hope 
of  getting  into  his  good  graces  by  any  exhibition  of  zeal  against 
the  African  slave-trade.  They  will  learn  from  the  head  of  the 
naval  department,  that  the  introduction  of  negro  slaves  into  our 
country  was  in  "  accordance  with  the  sanction  of  holy  writ,  as 
conveyed  in  the  twenty -fifth  chapter  of  Leviticus,"  p.  42  ;  and 
they  will  be  led  to  infer  the  benevolent  tendency  of  the  traffic 
from  the  following  authoritative  declaration  of  the  innocency 
and  happiness  of  slavery  itself. 

"  That  slavery  is  a  great  moral  evil,  or  that  its  existence  or  continu 
ance  detracts  one  tittle,  one  atom  from  the  happiness  of  the  slaves,  our 
own  experience  and  observation  directly  contradict,"  p.  126. 

We  presume  Mr.  Paulding  alludes  to  the  experience  and 
observation  acquired  in  his  intercourse  with  coffle-drivers  during 
his  excursion  in  1816.  Our  officers  are  moreover  instructed  by 
the  Secretary,  that  although 

"  The  white  and  black  races  of  men  are  probably  the  nearest  to  each 
other  of  all  these  varieties  (animals  with  similar  instincts),  they  are  not 
homogeneous  any  more  than  the  orang-outang,  the  ape,  the  baboon, 
and  the  monkey,  who  possibly  may  ere  long  find  a  new  sect  of  phi 
lanthropists  to  sustain  their  claim  to  amalgamation,"  p.  271. 

But  should  our  officers  inquire  how  far  public  opinion  would 
justify  and  commend  them  for  breaking  up  the  voyages  of 
American  merchants,  seizing  their  vessels,  and  exposing  their 
commanders  and  crews  to  an  infamous  death,  what  answer  would 
be  returned  by  facts  ? 

The  editor  of  the  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce  declared, 
in  his  paper  of  20th  June,  1835: 

"  We  pledge  ourselves  to  prove,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Presiden  t 
or  Secretary  of  War,  that  slave-ships  have,  within  the  past  year,  been 
actually  fitted  out  at  the  port  of  New  York." 

Has  the  Secretary  of  War,  the  President,  or  any  grand  jury 

called  on  the  editor  to  redeem  his  pledge  ? 
26 


298  JAY'S  WORKS. 

The  New  Orleans  Courier  of  May  21,  1839,  after  comment 
ing  on  tlie  present  extent  of  the  African  slave-trade,  remarks  : 

"  If  such  have  been  the  results  produced  by  the  injudicious  efforts 
of  the  English  philanthropists,  we  may  well  doubt  the  policy  of  the  law 
of  Congress  which  has  prohibited  the  importation  of  slaves  from  Afri 
ca,  —  a  policy,  that  by  all  we  can  learn,  has  no  other  effect  than  to 
cause  the  planter  of  Louisiana  to  pay  to  the  Virginia  slave-holder  one 
thousand  dollars  for  a  negro  which  now  in  Cuba,  and  by-and-by  in 
Texas,  may  be  bought  for  half  the  money.  It  is  known  to  those 
acquainted  with  the  character  of  the  African,  that  he  is  more  patient 
and  less  unruly  than  the  Virginia  or  Maryland  negro  — his  very  ignor 
ance  of  many  things  makes  him  less  dangerous  in  a  community  like 
ours,  and  his  constitution  is  better  suited  to  our  climate.  In  transport 
ing  him  from  his  own  country,  his  position  too  in  civilization  is  bettered, 
not  worsted. 

"  The  more  we  examine  and  reflect  on  the  policy  the  TEXANS  are 
likely  to  pursue  in  this  matter,  openly  or  covertly,  the  more  we  are 
convinced  that  Texas  should  be  annexed  to  the  Union,  or  else  Congress 
should  repeal  the  law  prohibiting  the  importation  of  slaves  from  Africa. 
Otherwise  the  culture  of  sugar  and  cotton  in  Louisiana  will  suffer 
greatly  by  the  cheaper  labor  which  the  planters  of  Cuba  and  Texas 
can  and  will  employ." 

Here  we  find  a  public  and  cold-blooded  proposal  to  reopen 
the  African  slave-trade.  And  was  this  proposal  received  with 
horror  by  the  public  ?  Alas !  even  the  northern  press  has 
scarcely  condemned  it.  Multitudes  of  our  papers  have  not 
noticed  it  —  others  have  republished  the  article  without  a  single 
remark,  and  the  "  New  York  Express,"  a  leading  Whig  and 
commercial  journal,  introduces  the  diabolical  proposal  to  its 
readers  as  "  The  following  interesting  comments  of  the  New  Or 
leans  Courier."  Openly  to  approve  the  proposal,  might  offend 
some  fanatical  subscribers  —  openly  to  condemn  it,  might  injure 
the  Whig  party  at  the  South. 

The  New  York  "  Courier  and  Enquirer,"  another  Whig  and 
commercial  journal,  contained  (July  27,  1839,)  the  following 
editorial : 

"  Rio  Janeiro  papers  have  reached  us  to  the  31st  of  May  last.  The 
chief  information  from  Brazil,  which  they  contain  of  interest  here,  is 
that  of  the  capture  of  two  vessels  under  Portuguese  colors  by  a  British 
ship-of-war,  shortly  after  leaving  Rio,  on  suspicion  that  they  were  fitted 
out  for  the  slave-trade.  We  arc  not  astonished  that  these  captures 
should  have  excited  much  indignation  to  Rio.  Whatever  may  be 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       299 

thought  of  the  trade  itself,  the  people  generally  are  engaged  in  it  and 
interested  in  its  success,  and  it  is  asking  a  little  too  much  of  them  to 
remain  quiet  while  foreign  vessels  enter  their  harbor,  take  in  provi 
sions,  remain  there  as  long  as  it  suits  their  purpose,  and  then  sally  forth, 
break  up  their  enterprises,  and  bring  back  their  property  to  be  con 
demned  under  their  very  noses." 

This  appeared  shortly  after  the  three  American  slavers,  cap 
tured  by  British  cruisers,  had  been  sent  into  New  York  —  hence 
the  indignation  of  the  editor  —  hence  the  news  from  Rio  was 
"  of  interest  "  in  New  York.  It  is  excessively  impudent  in  the 
English  to  take  it  for  granted  that  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
and  Brazil  against  the  trade,  were  enacted  in  good  faith.  It 
matters  not  that  Brazil  had  declared  the  trade  piracy,  —  and 
that  the  cruisers  only  delivered  to  the  Brazilian  government 
their  own  pirates.  The  Brazilian  people,  like  our  own,  are  en 
gaged  in  the  trade  and  interested  in  its  success,  and  it  is  a  great 
outrage  for  foreigners  to  interfere  ! 

Let  the  officers  of  our  navy  learn  from  this,  not  to  break  up 
the  enterprise  of  our  merchants,  and  to  bring  back  their  property 
to  be  condemned  under  their  very  noses. 


RENEWED    ACTION  OF  THE    FEDERAL    GOVERNMENT  IN  BEHALF 
OF    THE    COLONIZATION    SOCIETY. 

We  have  already  seen  the  character  and  extent  of  the  aid 
afforded  by  the  Government  to  the  Colonization  Society  under 
pretence  of  providing  for  recaptured  Africans.  Some  of  the 
southern  members  of  Congress,  not  fully  understanding  the  true 
tendency  of  this  Society,  and  believing  its  influence  hostile  to 
slavery,  objected  to  this  aid  on  constitutional  grounds,  and  it  was 
discontinued,  after  an  expenditure  of  $264,000.  That  the  So 
ciety  is  now  more  justly  estimated  appears  from  the  following 
recent  testimonies  in  its  behalf. 

On  the  10th  of  January,  1839,  Mr.  Henry  Wise,  a  member 
of  Congress  from  Virginia,  delivered  an  address  before  the 
Colonization  Society  of  that  State.  He  remarked  that  a  few 
years  since  he  became  suspicious  of  the  Society,  in  consequence 


300  JAY'S  WORKS. 

of  the  sentiments  avowed  by  some  of  its  members.  That  he 
had  before  that  time  been  "  the  zealous  and  active  friend  and 
advocate  of  the  great  original  principles  of  the  design,  to  secure 
and  fortify  the  institution  of  slavery  itself  by  colonizing  the  free 
people  of  color ; "  but  he  confesses  that  "the  line  of  demarca 
tion  is  now  too  strongly  drawn  between  abolition  and  colonization 
ever  to  be  crossed.  Their  principles  are  diametrically  opposed 
to  each  other,  and  their  warfare  will  tend  to  press  each  to  occu 
py  its  appropriate  ground  and  position.  The  Colonization  So 
ciety  must  now  maintain  that  great  original  principle  upon  which 
it  was  founded,  "friendship  to  the  slave-holder." 

In  the  month  previous  to  the  delivery  of  this  speech,  the 
Baldwin  (Alabama)  Colonization  Society  issued  an  address 
recommending  colonization, 

"  Because  it  proposes  to  remove  from  among  us  a  degraded,  useless, 
and  vicious  race. 

"  Because  we  consider  the  measure  of  all  others  best  calculated  to 
preserve  good  order  and  proper  discipline  among  our  slaves. 

"  Therefore  we  deem  the  plan  of  removing  them  (free  blacks)  from 
the  United  States,  the  most  effectual  method  of  counteracting  the 
abolitionists.  It  is  known  that  they  are  the  most  violent  opponents 
which  the  scheme  of  colonization  has  to  encounter.  Their  penetration 
has  discovered  its  tendency,  and  they  denounce  it  as  a  scheme  origin 
ating  among  slave-holders  for  the  perpetuation  of  slavery 

"  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten,  that  it  (Africa,)  is  the  natural  home  of 
the  negro  race,  and  at  a  safe  distance,  whence  they  can  never  return  to 
the  injury  of  our  slave  population"  African  Repository  for  March, 
1839. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  Society  is  now  regarded  as  a  friend  and 
ally  by  both  descriptions  of  slave-holders,  the  breeders  and  the 
planters.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Mr.  Van  Buren  is  an 
inattentive  observer  of  the  signs  of  the  times.  Colonization  is 
just  now  very  popular  in  Virginia,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Missis 
sippi,  and  Louisiana.  Mr.  Clay's  speech  Avas  delivered  on  the 
7th  of  February,  and  was  certainly  calculated  to  propitiate  the 
slave-holders.  He  is,  moreover,  President  of  the  Colonization 
Society,  and  it  would  be  unwise  to  suffer  him  to  engross  the 
influence  of  "  the  most  effectual  method  of  counteracting  the 
abolitionists."  On  the  19th  of  February,  twelve  days  after  Mr. 


ACTION  OP  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       301 

Clay's  speech,  the  intentions  of  the  government  were  announced 
in  the  following  letter,  which  was  widely  circulated. 

"  I  ought  here  to  inform  you  that  the  government  of  the  United 
States  has  came  to  our  aid  by  furnishing  cannon,  small  arms,  both 
muskets,  pistols,  swords  and  rockets,  and  an  abundant  supply,  of  am 
munition,  and  two  fine  boats  —  also  made  our  governor  their  agent  for 
recaptured  Africans  (!)  at  a  salary  of  $1500  a  year,  which  is  so  much 
money  bestoiued  on  the  Society ;  and  I  confidently  believe  that  a  ship- 
of-war  will  be  sent  to  the  coast  of  Africa  to  suppress  the  slave-trade. 
There  never  was  a  time  when  African  colonization  had  so  strong  claims 
on  the  benevolent  public. 

Respectfully  yours, 

SAMUEL  WILKINSON, 
General  Agent  of  the  American  Col.  Soc." 

Thus,  while  Mr.  Clay  can  only  make  speeches  in  behalf  of 
the  great  antidote  to  abolition,  his  rival  is  lavishing  upon  it  the 
public  funds  under  the  palpably  false  pretence  of  providing  for 
recaptured  Africans.  When  it  is  recollected  that  our  navy 
recaptures  no  Africans,  and  that  if  we  had  any  such  Africans  to 
restore  to  their  own  country,  they  might  be  sent  to  Liberia  in 
the  regular  vessels  at  a  trifling  expense,  it  must,  we  think,  be 
admitted  that  these  appropriations  to  the  Colonization  Society, 
and  this  addition  of  $1500  per  annum  to  the  salary  of  their 
governor,  is  a  fraudulent  application  of  the  public  money,  to 
promote  the  interests  of  slave-holders  and  the  perpetuity  of 
slavery. 

There  are  still  many  at  the  North  who  view  the  African 
slave-trade  with  abhorrence,  and  great  pains  have  been  taken 
to  impress  them  with  the  belief  that  the  colonization  of  Ameri 
can  negroes  upon  the  African  coast,  is  the  "  ONLY  efficient 
means  of  suppressing  it."  Here  Mr.  Van  Buren's  bounty  to 
the  Society  is  regarded  as  his  contribution  to  the  destruction  of 
this  commerce.  The  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce  affirms 
that  the  late  grants  "  will  have  an  important  influence  in  check 
ing  the  slave-trade." 

African  negroes,  we  well  know,  sell  every  slave  exported 

from  that  continent ;  we  have  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Madison, 

that  the  white  citizens  of  the  Southern  States  would  not  have 

entered   the   American  Union,   had   they   not    been   indulged 

26* 


302  JAY'S  WORKS- 

in  the  African  trade  for  twenty  years ;  and,  even  now,  many  of 
them  are  anxious  for  its  restoration.  But  American  negroes 
transported  to  Africa,  will  put  to  the  blush  the  civilization,  and 
Christianity,  and  chivalry  of  the  South,  and  will  manfully  resist 
the  temptation  to  which  multitudes  of  our  own  citizens  readily 
yield,  of  making  merchandise  of  their  fellow-men  !  Do  we  seek 
to  solve  this  enigma  by  a  reference  to  the  moral  character  of  our 
free  negroes  ?  Mr.  Clay,  the  President  of  the  Society,  assures 
us  that  they  are,  "of  all  descriptions  of  our  population,  the 
most  corrupt,  depraved  and  abandoned ; "  and  Mr.  Mercer,  a 
vice  president,  pronounces  them  "  a  horde  of  miserable  people 
—  the  objects  of  universal  suspicion  —  subsisting  by  plunder." 
So  far  from  the  Liberian  colony  being  a  restraint  on  the  slave- 
trade,  it  will  become  a  rendezvous  for  slavers,  and  the  colonists 
themselves  will  be  either  their  victims  or  factors.  We  cannot 
spare  room  for  all  the  reasons  on  which  this  opinion  is  founded. 
Let  the  following  facts  suffice. 

"  The  Liberia  Herald  mentions  the  capture  of  three  Spanish  slavers, 
by  the  British  brig  Curlew,  while  lying  within  the  harbor  of  Monrovia" 
African  repository  for  March,  1836. 

"  Boats  have  been  sent  from  the  Spanish  slavers  into  tlie  St.  Paul's, 
and  slaves  have  been  bought  in  that  river"  Letter  from  the  Governor  of 
Liberia,  8th  of  January,  1836.  Afr.  Rep. 

The  St.  Paul's  penetrates  the  heart  of  the  colony,  and  the 
settlements  of  Caldwell  and  Millsburg  are  on  its  banks  ! 

"  Within  a  year,  FOUR  SLAVE  FACTORIES  have  been  established 
almost  within  sight  of  the  colony."  Captain  Nicholson's  report  to  Sec 
retary  of  the  Navy,  8th  January,  1837. 

"  To-morrow,  the  schooner  sails  for  New  Sestos,  to  take  on  board  a 
cargo  of  slaves  which  I  have  ready  there.  I  have  been  obliged  to  have 
one  hundred  sets  of  shackles  made  at  Cape  Mesurada" — (Monrovia.)* 
Intercepted  letter  of  28th  September,  1838,  from  the  captain  of  a  slaver 
to  his  owners  at  Havana,  and  published  by  British  Parliament. 

"  On  the  15th  of  February,  1838,  arrived  at  this  port,  a  vessel  under 
American  colors  named  the  MONROVIA,  last  from  Liberia,  with  a  bill 
of  sale  and  list  of  crew  from  the  collector  of  that  colony.  This  vessel 
had  neither  register  nor  a  sea  letter.  I  have  ascertained,  without 

*  This  letter  is  dated  at  Little  Bassa,  in  Liberia,  and  between  Monrovia 
and  Cape  Palmas. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       303 

doubt,  that  she  is  a  vessel  belonging  to  Don  Pedro  Blanco,*  01  the 
Gallinas,  has  put  in  here,  directed  to  his  agent,  for  a  fit-out  for  the 
coast,  and  that  a  cargo  of  slaves  is  ready  for  her.  There  is  a  black 
man  on  board,  for  a  flag  captain  —  speaks  English  well  —  learned  that 
he  is  a  complete  pilot  on  board  to  all  the  inlets  between  Sierra  Leone 
and  Gambia.  lie  cannot  read  or  write. 

"  Don  Pedro  Blanco's  agent  in  Liberia  is  J.  N.  Lewis,  commission 
merchant."  Letter  of  February  28th,  1838,/ro?n  British  Consul  for  the 
Cape  de  Verd  Islands,  to  Lord  Palmerston.  British  Documents. 


INTERCOURSE  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  WITH    THE    INDIANS  MADE 
SUBSERVIENT    TO    SLAVERY. 

It  has  been  long  customary,  in  every  treaty  of  peace,  after  an 
Indian  war,  to  insert  an  article  for  the  surrender  of  prisoners, 
"  white  or  black,"  or  of  "  all  citizens  of  the  United  States,  white 
inhabitant  or  negroes."  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  southern 
Indians,  in  their  wars,  made  any  slaves  prisoners,  strictly  speak 
ing.  Servitude  with  the  Indians  is  so  much  lighter  than  with 
the  planters,  that  the  slaves  are  ever  ready  to  exchange  Chris 
tian  for  heathen  masters ;  and  many  of  them  have  embraced  the 
opportunity,  afforded  by  Indian  wars,  of  escaping  from  the 
"  quarters,"  and  seeking  refuge  in  the  wigwam. 

In  1802,  Congress  passed  a  law  whereby  the  government 
assumed  the  obligation  of  indemnifying  the  citizens  for  all  rob 
beries  and  trespasses  they  might  suffer  from  the  Indians  ;  and 
the  amount  of  the  indemnification  was  to  be  deducted  from  the 
annuities  or  other  moneys  which  might  be  due  from  the  govern 
ment  to  the  Indians.  The  treaty  stipulation  to  restore  negroes 
was  nugatory  in  practice,  as  the  Indians  felt  probably  no  dispo 
sition  to  execute  it.  Still  the  stipulation  imposed  an  obligation, 
and  laid  the  foundation  of  a  claim  on  the  part  of  the  govern 
ment.  These  introductory  remarks  will  aid  the  reader  in  com 
prehending  the  extraordinary  and  iniquitous  transaction  we 
shall  now  proceed  to  unfold. 

On  the  8th  of  January,  1821,  a  treaty  was  concluded  at 
Indian  Springs,  between  the  United  States  and  the  Creek 
nation.  The  federal  negotiators  were  D.  M.  Forney,  of  North 

*  A  notorious  slave  merchant,  connected  with  a  house  in  Havana. 


304  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Carolina,  and  David  Meriwether,  of  Georgia.  By  tins  treaty 
the  United  States  purchased  certain  lands  belonging  to  the 
Creeks.  The  consideration  for  these  lands  was  two-fold ;  first  a 
certain  sum  of  money,  and  secondly,  the  following  stipulation 
in  the  words  of  the  treaty : 

"  And  as  a  further  consideration  for  said  cession,  the  United  States 
do  hereby  agree  to  pay  the  State  of  Georgia,  whatever  balance  may  be 
found  due  by  the  Creek  nation,  to  the  citizens  of  that  State,  whenever 
the  same  shall  be  ascertained  in  conformity  with  reference  made  by 
the  Commissioners  of  Georgia,  and  the  chiefs,  headmen,  and  warriors 
of  the  Creek  nation,  to  be  paid  in  five  annual  instalments,  without 
interest,  provided  the  same  shall  not  exceed  the  sum  of  $250,000,  the 
Commissioners  of  Georgia  executing  to  the  Creek  nation  a  full  and 
final  relinquishment  of  all  claims  of  the  citizens  of  Georgia  against  the 
Creek  nation,  for  property  taken  or  destroyed  PRIOR  to  the  Act  of 
Congress,  of  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  two,  regulating  the  inter 
course  with  the  Indian  tribes."  See  Treaty,  Laws  of  U.  S.  —  6th  Vol. 
p.  771. 

For  whatever  trespasses  the  Georgians  had  suffered  from  the 
Creeks  since  1802,  they  had  been  compensated  by  the  Federal 
Government.  An  opportunity  was  now  offered  for  wringing 
from  these  poor  and  ignorant  savages,  compensation  for  every 
alleged  injury  committed  by  them  from  the  first  settlement  of 
the  country  up  to  the  year  1802  !  They  were  about  to  sell  their 
lands,  and  were  made  to  believe  that  they  were  answerable  for 
every  pig  and  calf  which  they  or  their  ancestors  had  ever  stolen 
from  their  pale-faced  neighbors.  The  Georgians,  however, 
kindly  agreed  that  they  would  not  demand  more  than  $250,000 ; 
and  the  United  States  most  benevolently  stipulated,  that  if  the 
Georgians  would  give  the  Creeks  a  receipt  in  full,  that  then, 
whatever  balance  should  be  found  due  on  these  claims,  should 
be  paid  out  of  the  national  treasury;  this  stipulation  being 
expressly  declared  to  be  part  of  the  consideration  given  for  the 
land,  it  is  therefore  obvious,  that  $250,000  of  the  consideration 
or  price  of  the  land  was  withheld  by  the  United  States,  where 
with  to  liquidate  "  whatever  balance,"  not  exceeding  that  sum, 
might  be  found  due  to  the  Georgians.  This  is  certainly  one  of 
the  most  extraordinary  treaties  in  the  annals  of  diplomacy. 
The  claims  to  be  paid  are  all  undefined,  and  unlimited  as  to 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       305 

time,  except  that  no  one  can  be  of  a  shorter  standing  than  twenty 
years  !  And  these  ancient  and  undescribed  claims,  after  laying 
dormant  for  twenty  years,  are  now  to  be  paid  for  by  a  set  of  poor 
half-famished  Indians,  who  can  neither  read  nor  write  —  paid 
for,  too,  out  of  the  price  which  the  Federal  Government  is 
pleased  to  allow  them  for  their  lands  ;  and  this  compulsory  pay 
ment  and  virtual  robbery  are  disguised  under  the  form  of  a 
treaty,  to  which  the  Indians  are  required  to  attach  their  marks. 
Among  ourselves,  contracts  and  debts  cannot  ordinarily  be  en 
forced  after  six  years  ;  but  no  statute  of  limitations  is  permitted 
to  avail  the  helpless  tenant  of  the  forest.  When  claims  between 
white  men  are  to  be  liquidated  by  a  tribunal,  each  party  is  heard 
in  his  own  behalf;  but  in  the  present  case,  a  commissioner,  ap 
pointed  by  the  President,  heard  the  allegations  of  the  Georgians 
only,  and  awarded  them  what  sums  he  thought  proper,  from 
funds  honestly  belonging  to  the  Creeks. 

The  testimony  offered  by  the  Georgians  has  not  been  pub 
lished,  but  we  may  readily  believe  it  was  of  a  character  accord 
ing  with  the  whole  transaction.  The  award  was  communicated 
to  Congress,*  and  we  extract  from  it  the  following  summary  of 
allowance  for  SLAVES,  alleged  to  have  been  killed  or  stolen  by 
the  Creeks,  viz. : 


In  the  year  1 799,     2  slaves, 

1780,  1      "       • 300 

1781,  3      "        1,100 

1782,  2      "        750 

1784,     2      »        1,000 

1788,49      " 17,600 

1  "girl," 250 

1  "  negro  woman  killed," 325 

1 789,     8  slaves, 2,320 

1  "  negro  boy," 400 

1 790— 1801,  21  slaves, 7,950 


Total, 91  slaves, $32,795 

This  statement  gives  rise  to  various  reflections.  We  observe, 
in  the  first  place,  that  through  the  agency  of  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment,  a  Georgia  slave-holder  recovers  from  the  Indians 

*  State  papers,  1  Sess.,  20  Cong.,  H.  of  E,.,  Vol.  vii,  Doc.  268. 


306  JAY'S  WORKS. 

$800,  for  two  slaves  who  had  escaped  from  him  or  his  ancestors 
FORTY  years  before  !  The  enormous  valuation  of  these  slaves 
also  deserves  notice.  It  seems,  slaves  are  supposed  to  have 
been  worth,  in  1779,  when  there  was  no  sugar  nor  cotton  culti 
vation  in  Georgia,  nor  man-market  in  New  Orleans,  and  at  a 
time  when  the  whole  State  was  overrun  with  foreign  troops,  and 
its  cities  in  possession  of  the  enemy,  four  hundred  dollars  a 
head,  —  double  the  price  they  commanded  after  the  peace. 

From  the  dates  of  these  several  claims,  we  may  form  some 
idea  of  the  nature  of  the  testimony  by  which  they  were  sup 
ported.  Of  eye-witnesses,  it  is  scarcely  possible  there  could 
have  been  one  —  of  family  traditions,  guesses,  and  assertions, 
there  was,  no  doubt,  abundance.  It  must  not  be  supposed  the 
Creeks  had  to  pay  for  negroes  only.  In  the  Indian  wars  occur 
ring  between  1779  and  1802,  the  Georgians  lost  various  other 
chattels,  for  which  compensation  was  allowed  on  the  same  liberal 
scale.  How  the  value  of  a  Georgia  calf  or  pig,  forty  years 
before,  was  ascertained,  we  are  not  informed ;  but  probably  by 
the  same  process  by  which  it  was  discovered,  that  in  1789  a 
"negro  boy"  was  worth  $400.  But  whatever  was  the  road 
travelled  by  the  United  States  Commissioners,  they  arrived  at 
the  conclusion  that  the  Creeks  owed  the  Georgians,  for  property 
taken  or  destroyed,  negroes  included,  $101,319.  This  sum, 
deducted  from  the  $250,000  retained  by  the  Government,  left  a 
balance  of  $148,681. 

Can  the  reader  doubt  for  a  moment  to  whom  this  balance 
justly  belonged?  A  certain  value  was  of  course  set  upon  the 
land  purchased  of  the  Creeks ;  a  portion  of  that  value  was  paid 
in  money,  and  as  a  "  further  consideration,"  the  United  States 
assumed  the  payment  of  the  Georgia  claims  to  the  amount  of 
$250,000.  Had  there  been  no  claims,  the  money  reserved 
would  of  course  have  belonged  to  the  Creeks.  But  if  the  extent 
of  the  claims  was  grossly  exaggerated,  and  the  Indians  were  made 
to  believe  they  owed  more  than  double  the  real  amount,  can 
there  be  a  question,  that  on  every  principle  of  honor  and  equity 
the  balance  left  belonged  to  the  Creeks  ?  Thus  thought  the 
Creeks,  and  they  accordingly  petitioned  Congress  for  this  bal- 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       307 

ance,  as  due  to  them  in  part  payment  for  their  lands  ;*  but 
Congress  thought  differently,  and  not  one  cent  was  ever  restored 
to  them. 

The  Georgians  who  had  been  so  lucky  as  to  have  ancestors 
who  had  lost  cows,  horses,  and  negroes  in  the  Indian  wars,  now 
cast  a  wistful  eye  upon  this  balance.  True  it  was,  their  anti 
quated  claims  had  been  settled  in  a  manner  agreed  to  by  them 
selves,  and  receipts  in  full  had  been  given,  and  most  extravagant 
compensation  had  been  awarded  to  them.  But  still,  here  was 
about  $150,000,  which  most  certainly  did  not  belong  to  the 
Government  —  and  as  to  paying  it  to  Indians,  why  that  was  out 
of  the  question  ;  and  so  they  modestly  asked  for  it  themselves. 
Their  petition  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Indian  affairs ; 
and  on  the  7th  of  January,  1834,  its  chairman,  Mr.  Gilmer,  a 
representative  from  Georgia,  reported  in  favor  of  the  petitioners. 
He  contended  that  the  claimants  were  entitled,  not  merely  to  the 
value  of  the  property  taken,  but  also  to  compensation  for  being 
deprived  of  its  use. 

"  A  careful  examination,"  proceeds  the  report,  "  of  the  merits  of  the 
claims,  founded  on  the  increase  of  the  female  slaves  which  were  taken 
and  carried  away  by  those  Indians,  would,  it  is  believed,  lead  to  a  simi 
lar  result.  Those  who  are  at  all  conversant  with  the  considerations 
which  form  the  criterion  by  which  the  value  of  slave  property  is  esti 
mated,  knoAv  that  a  much  higher  value  is  set  on  &  female  slave,  in  con 
sequence  of  an  anticipation  of  increase.  Therefore,  as  the  claimant 
whose  female  slave  was  taken  by  those  Indians,  and  carried  away,  had  a 
property  in  expectancy  in  the  issue  of  such  female  slave,  principles  of 
common  sense  and  common  justice  would  award  to  the  rightful  owner 
a  restitution  of  such  increase,  or  an  equivalent  in  lieu  thereof.''! 

People  at  the  North  may  sometimes  count  their  chickens  be 
fore  they  are  hatched ;  but  it  would  have  been  a  still  more 
occult  operation  for  Congress  to  have  calculated  the  market 
value,  in  1834,  of  the  children  which  might  have  been  born  of 
the  "  negro  woman  killed  "  in  1788;  and  Mr.  Gilmer  himself 
admitted  that  the  subject  was  attended  with  difficulty.  It  was 
not,  however,  necessary  to  enter  into  such  abstruse  inquiries ; 

*  State  papers,  2  Sess.,  20  Cong.,  Vol.  ii,  Doc.  80. 

f  Reports  of  Committees,  1  Sess.,  23  Cong.,  Doc.  140. 


308  JAY'S  WORKS. 

all  that  was  wanted  was  the  adoption  of  some  rule  which  would 
certainly  absorb  the  whole  balance,  and  at  the  same  time  give  to 
a  transfer  to  the  pockets  of  the  Georgians  of  money  belonging 
to  the  Creeks,  the  appearance  of  a  payment  under  the  treaty. 
It  was  discovered  that  an  allowance  of  interest  at  the  rate  of  six 
per  cent,  on  the  several  awards,  from  the  date  of  each  claim, 
would  answer  the  purpose.  Thus,  on  the  award  of  $800  for 
two  slaves  taken  in  1779,  fifty-five  years'  interest,  or  $2,G40, 
would  be  allowed.  In  this  way  the  claimants  would  get  the 
entire  balance,  and  might  divide  it  pro  rata  among  them.  Mr. 
Gilmer  accordingly  reported  a  bill,  allowing  the  interest :  and 
it  is  needless  to  say  that  it  became  a  law.* 

Having  witnessed  the  justice  meted  by  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  to  the  Creek  Indians,  we  request  the  reader's  attention  to 
the  treatment  experienced  by  the  Seminoles,  and  to 

THE    ORIGIN    OF    THE    FLORIDA    WAR. 

It  will  be  recollected  that  in  1816  the  slave-holders  complained 
that  their  fugitive  slaves  found  refuge  in  Florida,  then  be- 

*  The  claim  for  interest  was  early  made,  and  was  refused  by  the  President, 
on  the  report  of  the  Attorney-General,  Mr.  Wirt,  to  whom  it  had  been  re 
ferred.  The  report,  after  showing  that  the  demand  for  interest  was  not  justi 
fied  by  law  or  practice,  proceeded  to  insist  that  it  was,  moreover,  inequitable. 
The  following  extract  places  in  a  strong  light  the  injustice  of  Gilmer's  bill, 
and  the  servility  of  the  northern  members  who  voted  for  it. 

"  If  the  Commissioner,  in  assessing  these  damages,  has  given  to  the  citi 
zens  of  Georgia  strict  and  stinted  measure,  there  is  nothing  offensive  to 
equity  in  their  asking  for  interest;  but  if  he  has  already  given  them  vindic 
tive,  and  even  double  damages,  the  addition  of  interest  to  such  damages  is 
not,  I  think,  a  demand  for  which  equity,  of  her  own  accord,  would  cry  aloud. 
.  .  .  .  Has  the  Commissioner  been  strict  in  calling  on  the  Georgia  claim 
ants  for  proof  of  the  affirmative  fact  that  the  property  for  which  they  made 
their  claims  was  in  being,  and  within  the  Creek  nation  at  the  date  of  the  re 
spective  treaties  ?  On  the  contrary,  he  has,  in  every  instance,  presumed  this 
fact  in  favor  of  the  claimants,  without  proof.  ....  As  to  the  standard 
of  value  —  the  epoch,  with  relation  to  which  the  values  are  to  be  considered, 
is  from  1783  to  1802  ;  that  is,  from  twenty  to  forty  years  ago.  The  region  of 
country  to  be  regarded  with  reference  to  the  same  subject,  is  the  frontiers 
of  Georgia.  In  relation  to  that  country,  and  in  relation  to  that  time,  negroes, 
old  and  young,  men,  women  and  children,  are  valued  at  an  average  of  $365.- 
80 ;  horses  of  all  ages  and  descriptions  are  valued  at  an  average  of  $87.41  : 
and  in  the  same  proportion  in  regard  to  other  articles,  which  I  understand  is 
fixing  the  property  at  an  average  of  double  its  value  at  that  time,  and  in  that 
quarter  of  the  country.  If  this  be  so,  equity,  so  far  from  demanding,  would 
revolt  from  the  proposition  of  adding  interest  to  such  a  valuation  —  it  would 
be  usury,  notjnterest  —  prodigality,  not  justice."  Rep.,  No.  128,  1  Sess.,  20 
Cong. 

Yet  this  usury  and  prodigality  were  voted  to  the  Georgia  slave-holders  by 
northern  members,  at  the  expense  of  the  Indians. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       309 

longing  to  the  crown  of  Spain;  and  that,  regardless  of  the 
obligations  of  neutrality,  a  naval  force  had  been  sent  by  the 
Government  up  the  river  Appalachicola,  to  destroy  a  fort  con 
taining  about  300  negroes,  most  of  whom  were  slaughtered. 
This  territory  was  afterwards  ceded  to  the  United  States  ;  and 
for  several  years  past,  the  Government  has  been  waging  a 
relentless  and  most  disastrous  war  against  its  aboriginal  inhab 
itants,  with  the  avowed  design  of  driving  them  from  the  Penin 
sula.  It  is  not  our  design  to  write  the  history  of  this  war,  but 
merely  to  expose  its  true  origin,  and  to  explain  the  motives 
which  have  led  the  whites  to  insist  on  the  expulsion  of  the 
Seminoles,  and  the  causes  which  have  induced  the  latter  to  of 
fer  a  resistance  unparalleled  in  savage  warfare,  for  persevering 
and  desperate  courage  and  ferocity. 

The  sacrifice  on  our  part,  of  blood,  of  treasure,  and  of  milita 
ry  honor  in  this  war,  is  well  known  to  be  prodigious.  THIRTY 
MILLIONS  of  dollars  have  already,  it  is  said,  been  expended  — 
our  best  generals  have  been  baffled,  and  their  laurels  withered ; 
and  our  troops  have  perished  in  great  numbers,  in  contests  with 
their  savage  foe,  and  by  the  sickliness  of  the  climate.  And  yet 
no  rational  cause  is  assigned  by  the  Government  for  this  disas 
trous  war.  No  reason  is  given  why  it  is  necessary,  at  all  hazards, 
and  at  every  expense,  to  drive  the  Seminoles  from  Florida. 
The  whites  are  few  in  number,  have  far  more  land  than  they 
can  occupy,  and  certainly  do  not  want  the  wet  and  unwholesome 
everglades  possessed  by  the  Indians,  and  into  which,  we  are 
told,  white  men  can  only  penetrate  at  certain  seasons  of  the 
year,  without  exposing  their  lives  to  almost  certain  destruction. 
But  were  the  Seminoles  so  numerous  that  it  was  necessary  to 
remove  them,  to  make  room  for  the  whites,  or  so  powerful  as  to 
render  it  unsafe  to  plant  white  settlements  in  Florida  ?  We 
learn  from  official  reports,  that  they  numbered  about  3000  !  * 

*  I  herewith  enclose  for  your  information,  a  copy  of  the  general  plan  of 
operations  which  I  have  adopted  for  the  removal  of  the  Seminoles.  I  have 
assumed  that  the  round  number  of  three  thousand  embraces  all,  of  every  de 
scription."  Wiley  Thompson,  Jr.,  Agent,  Sept.  3,  1835.  "  I  consider  the 


population,  including  negroes,  not  to  exceed  3000,  of  which  I  should  say  1600 
ABE  FEMALES."  Joseph  Harris,  Disbursing  Agent  of  Florida  Indians,  Sept. 
29, 1835. 

27 


310  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Major-General  Jessup,  the  commanding  officer  of  the  army,  and 
well  acquainted  with  the  existing  condition  of  the  Territory,  in 
a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  Feb.  11,  1837,  makes  the  fol 
lowing  candid  avowal : 

"  We  have  committed  the  error  of  attempting  to  remove  them  (the 
Seminoles)  when  their  lands  were  not  required  for  agricultural  purposes ; 
when  they  were  not  in  the  way  of  the  white  inhabitants,  and  when  the 
greater  portion  of  their  country  was  an  unexplored  wilderness,  of  the 
interior  of  which  we  were  as  ignorant  as  of  the  interior  of  China.  .  . 
.  .  I  do  not  consider  the  country  south  of  Chickasa  Hatchee  worth 
the  medicines  we  shall  expend  in  driving  the  Indians  from  it." 

Why,  then,  all  this  waste  of  blood  and  treasure  ?  We  an 
swer  TO  PREVENT  FUGITIVE  SLAVES  FROM  FINDING  AN 

ASYLUM   AMOMG   THE   INDIANS  ! 

We  well  know  how  unwillingly  this  truth  will  be  received  by 
those  among  us  who  contend  that  the  North  has  nothing  to  do 
with  slavery ;  but  we  appeal  iQ  facts  —  and  to  facts  about  which 
there  is  and  can  be  no  dispute. 

Florida  borders  upon  two  slave  States,  Alabama  and  Georgia, 
and  is  not  far  distant  from  two  others,  Mississippi  and  Louis 
iana.  It  is  not,  therefore,  surprising  that  slaves  from  these 
States,  escaping  from  their  masters,  should  seek  refuge  in  the 
huts  of  the  Seminoles.  We  have  already  seen  that  the  Federal 
Government  have  lately  awarded  upwards  of  $5000  to  the  gal 
lant  officers  and  seamen  who  destroyed  300  fugitive  slaves  in 
Florida,  in  1816.  The  terrible  example  then  made,  was  not,  it 
seems,  effectual;  for  in  1825,  the  War  Department  issued  an 
order  on  the  subject  of  fugitive  slaves  among  the  Seminoles,  and 
the  Indian  Agent  at  Tallahassee  was  directed  to  take  measures 
to  enable  the  claimants  to  identify  their  property  for  its  imme 
diate  restoration.  "  Let  the  chiefs  distinctly  understand,"  wrote 
the  Agent,  agreeably  to  his  instructions,  "  that  they  are  not  to 
harbor  runaway  negroes  ;  and  that  they  will  be  required  to  give 
up  such  negroes  as  are  now  residing  within  their  limits."  * 

*  State  papers,  1  Sess.,  19  Cong.,  Yol.  iv,  Doc.  74,  p.  82.| 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       311 

An  Alabama  paper,  speaking  of  the  war,  makes  the  following 
confession : 

"  It  is  the  power  to  entice  away  and  instruct  in  bush-fighting  so  many 
of  our  slaves,  that  we  would  wish  to  annihilate.  These  Seminoles  can- 
not  remain  in  the  Peninsula  of  Florida  without  threatening  the  internal 
safety  of  the  South." 

In  1834,  a  petition,  signed  by  about  one  hundred  of  the  in 
habitants  of  Alachua  county,  Florida,  was  presented  to  Presi 
dent  Jackson,  praying  for  his  interposition  against  the  Seminoles. 

"  While  the  lawless  and  indomitable  people  (says  the  petition)  con 
tinue  where  they  now  are,  the  owners  of  slaves  in  our  territory,  and 
even  in  the  States  contiguous,  cannot  for  a  moment,  in  any  thing  like 
security,  enjoy  the  possession  of  this  description  of  property.  Does  a 
negro  become  tired  of  the  service  of  his  owner,  he  has  only  to  flee  to 
the  Indian  country,  where  he  will  find  ample  safety  against  pursuit.  It 
is  a  fact  which,  if  not  susceptible  of  proof,  is  notwithstanding,  and 

rn  good  ground,  firmly  believed,  that  there  is  at  this  time  living  under 
protection  of  the  Seminole  Indians,  a  large  number,  probably  more 
than  one  hundred  slaves,  who  have  absconded  from  their  masters  in 
the  neighboring  States  and  in  Florida,  since  the  treaty  of  Camp  Moul- 
trie.  Within  a  few  weeks  several  parties  are  known  to  have  sought 
and  found  shelter  in  the  nation,  where  they  continue  secure  against 

every  eifort  of  their  owners  to  recover  them There 

are,  as  it  is  believed,  more  than  five  hundred  negroes  residing  with  the 
Seminole  Indians,  four-fifths  of  whom  are  runaways,  or  descendants  of 

runaways It  is  perfectly  obvious  that  during  the 

existence  of  such  a  state  of  things,  the  interests  of  this  fertile  and 
promising  section  of  Florida  cannot  flourish ;  and  we  are  constrained 
to  repeat,  that  there  is  no  rational  prospect  for  the  better,  so  long  as 
the  Indians  are  suffered  to  remain  in  their  present  location." 

The  petition  concludes  with  recommending  "the  immediate 
and  efficient  action  of  the  government."  * 

In  the  spring  of  1839,  a  sort  of  armistice  was  concluded  with 
the  Seminoles.  This  gave  vast  offence  to  the  slave-holders,  and 
at  a  public  meeting  held  at  Tallahassee,  it  was  resolved,  "  That 
the  peninsula  of  Florida  is  the  last  place  in  the  limits  of  the 
United  States  wherein  the  Indians  should  be  permitted  to  re 
main"  For  this  assertion,  the  following  among  other  reasons 
was  assigned :  "If  located  in  Florida,  all  the  runaway  slaves 
will  find  refuge  and  protection  with  them" 

*  1  Sess.,  24  Cong.,  Doc.  271. 


312  JAY'S  WORKS. 

The  New  Orleans  Courier  of  July  27,  1839,  in  reference  to 
this  same  subject  remarks : 


"  Every  year's  delay  in  subduing  the  Seminoles  adds  to  the  risk  of 
their  being  joined  by  runaway  slaves  from  the  adjacent  States,  and  in 
creases  the  danger  of  a  rising  among  the  serviles" 


SLAVERY,  then,  is  the  key  which  unlocks  the  enigma  of  the 
Florida  war.  To  break  up  a  refuge  for  runaway  slaves,  THIRTY 
MILLIONS  have  already  been  expended ;  and  if  necessary,  thirty 
millions  more  will  be  expended  for  the  same  object. 

But  it  may  be  said,  however  satisfactorily  the  foregoing  facts 
may  account  for  the  conduct  of  the  Federal  Government,  they 
do  notgxplain  the  astonishing  and  peculiar  inveteracy  manifest 
ed  by  these  Seminoles  towards  the  whites.  Other  tribes  have 
without  difficulty  been  remold  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi ; 
why  then  do  these  Indians  alone  offer  a  resistance  to  a  superior 
power,  more  determined  and  more  heroic  than  perhaps  any 
recorded  in  history  ?  Again  does  SLAVERY  solve  the  difficulty. 

It  is  very  obvious  that  the  Seminoles  have  been  universally 
exasperated.  Their  extreme  hatred  to  the  whites  has  unques 
tionably  been  owing  in  part  to  the  gross  and  wicked  frauds  which 
they  believe  (with  too  much  apparent  reason)  were  practised  in 
the  treaty  of  Payne's  Landing,  under  which  they  were  required 
to  remove  from  Florida.  But  the  great  and  prevailing  cause  of 
their  deep-seated  hostility,  is  to  be  sought  for  in  a  long  train  of 
frauds  and  injuries,  of  which  they  have  been  the  victims  on 
account  of  their  slaves ;  and  likewise  in  the  dread  of  Christian 
slavery,  entertained  by  the  negroes  who  belong  to,  or  have  joined 
the  Seminoles. 

Of  the  hostile  chiefs,  the  most  active,  persevering,  and  daring, 
was  the  celebrated  OSEOLA.  It  is  said  that  this  man's  mother 
was  seized  and  carried  into  Georgia  as  a  slave,  under  pretence 
that  she  was  the  daughter  of  a  fugitive  negress.  If  this  story, 
which  has  found  its  way  into  the  public  papers,  be  true,  the 
wrongs  of  the  mother  have  been  terribly  avenged  by  the  son. 

That  the  reader  may  understand  the  narratives  we  are  about 
to  lay  before  him,  he  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  Seminoles,  like 


ACTION  OP  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       313 

their  more  civilized  neighbors,  are  slave-holders,  but,  unlike 
them,  they  exercise  their  authority  in  such  a  manner  as  to  ren 
der  their  slaves  unwilling  to  leave  them.  The  slaves  are  in 
fact  little  more  than  tenants  of  kind  and  familiar  landlords,  and 
regarded  with  horror  the  very  idea  of  being  transferred  from 
their  heathen  to  Christian  masters.  But  there  were  many  of 
the  whites  who  were  exceedingly  anxious  to  make  the  transfer. 
The  agent,  Wiley  Thompson,  thus  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of 
War  (October  27,  1834)  : 

"  There  are  many  very  likely  negroes  in  this  nation.  Some  of  the 
whites  in  the  adjacent  settlements  manifest  a  restless  desire  to  obtain 
them,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  Indian-raised  negroes  are  now  in  pos 
session  of  the  whites." 

The  volume  of  documents  submitted  to  Congress,  June  3, 
1836,  and  entitled  "Seminole  Hostilities,"  from  which  we  quote, 
contains  many  illustrations  of  the  agent's  assertion ;  we  can 
spare  room  for  only  a  portion  of  them. 

It  appears  that  Conchattimico,  a  Florida  chief,  was  the  pos 
sessor  of  a  number  of  slaves,  the  title  to  whom  was  disputed  by 
another  Indian,  who  sold  his  claim  to  a  white  man.  The  means 
taken  by  the  purchaser  to  obtain  the  slaves,  are  thus  described 
by  the  agent  in  his  letter  to  the  War  Department,  January  20, 
1834: 

"  I  was  informed  by  the  sub-agent,  that  Conchattimico  sent  a  runner 
for  him  not  long  since;  that  he  immediately  repaired  to  the  old 
chiefs  town,  where  he  arrived  in  the  night,  and  found  the  Indians  and 
negroes  greatly  excited  and  in  arms ;  and  that  very  soon  thereafter 
Vacca  Pechassie,  with  fifteen  or  more  of  his  warriors  in  arms  arrived, 
for  the  purpose  of  aiding  in  resistance  of  a  threatened  violent  attempt 
to  force  the  slaves  out  of  Conchattimico's  possession.  Persons  in 
terested  in  the  adverse  claim,  were  frequently  seen  hovering  about  the 
reserve ;  and  the  chief  was  informed  that  attempts  had  been  made  to 
bribe  commanders  of  steamboats,  on  the  river,  to  aid  in  accomplishing 
the  capture  of  the  slaves.  .  ...  Under  such  circumstances  I  could 
not  but  approve  the  order  given  by  the  sub-agent  to  Conchattimico,  to 
defend  Ms  property  ly  force,  should  a  violent  attempt  be  made  to  wrest 
it  from  him." 

Shortly  after  this,  Judge  Cameron,  of  the  United  States  Dis 
trict  Court,  investigated  the  white  man's  claim  to  these  slaves, 
and  pronounced  it  groundless.    Notwithstanding  this  decision, 
27* 


314  JAY'S  WORKS. 

the  claim  was  again  sold  to  a  company  of  whites,  who  resolved 
to  relieve  the  chief  of  his  property.  But  as  the  chief  intended 
to  protect  it  by  force  of  arms,  the  enterprise  was  not  free  from 
danger.  The  expedient  resorted  to  by  the  kidnappers  is  thus 
explained  in  a  letter  from  the  late  Governor  of  the  Territory  to 
the  Secretary  of  War,  May  23,  1836. 

"  I  herewith  transmit  you  a  petition  from  the  Indian  chief  Conchat- 
timico,  to  be  laid  before  Congress  should  you  consider  that  necessary. 
Taking  forcibly  the  slaves  of  this  chief,  after  those  men  had  created  an 
alarm  among  the  white  inhabitants  which  resulted  in  disarming  the 
Indians,  was  an  outrage  well  calculated  to  rouse  them  to  hostility.  The 
alarm  was  concerted  by  these  violators  of  all  law,  solely  with  the  view 
of  obtaining,  without  danger  of  resistance,  the  slaves  of  the  chief.  I 
have  no  expectation  the  slaves  referred  to  in  the  petition  will  ever  be 
obtained,  as  I  take  it  for  granted  they  have  been  carried  to  a  great 
distance  and  sold." 

This  Conchattimico  was  a  friendly  chief,  having  no  intercourse 
with  the  hostile  Seminoles ;  but  on  the  report  being  raised  that 
he  was  about  to  join  the  enemy,  he  surrendered  his  arms  to  quiet 
the  apprehensions,  real  or  affected,  of  his  white  neighbors.  No 
sooner  had  he  thus  rendered  himself  defenceless,  than  a  party  of 
Georgians  carried  off  his  slaves,  twenty  in  number,  and  valued 
at  $15,000. 

We  have  already  seen  how  profitable  it  is  for  a  Georgian  to 
lose  a  slave  among  the  Indians ;  but  Congress  has  provided  no 
fund  to  indemnify  the  Indian  master  for  the  slaves  of  which  he 
may  be  robbed  by  Georgians. 

Another  friendly  Florida  chief,  Pechassie,  thus  complains  to 
the  agent  (28th  July,  1835)  : 

"  I  am  induced  to  write  you  in  consequence  of  the  depredations 
making,  and  attempted  to  be  made  on  my  farm,  by  a  company  of  men, 
negro-stealers ;  some  of  whom  are  from  Columbus,  (Georgia,)  and  have 
connected  themselves  with  Brown  and  Douglas.  It  is  reported,  and 
believed  by  all  the  white  people  around  here,  that  a  large  number  of 
them  will  very  shortly  come  down  here,  and  attempt  to  take  off  Billy, 
Jim,  Rose  and  her  family,  and  others  (slaves.)  ...  I  should  like 
to  have  your  advice  how  I  should  act.  I  dislike  to  make  any  trouble, 
or  have  any  difficulty  with  the  white  people  ;  but  if  they  will  trespass 
on  my  premises,  and  on  my  rights,  I  must  defend  myself  the  best  way 
I  can.  .  .  Please  direct  me  how  to  act  in  this  matter.  Douglas  and 
bis  company  hired  a  man,  who  has  two  large  trained  dogs  for  the  pur- 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.      315 

pose,  to  come  down  and  take  Billy.  The  man  came,  but  seeing  he 
could  do  nothing  alone,  has  gone  off  somewhere,  probably  to  recruit. 
He  is  from  Mobile,  and  follows  for  a  livelihood  catching  runaway 
negroes  with  these  large  dogs." 

By  a  letter  from  the  United  States  Attorney,  we  find  that 
Pechassie  was  subsequently  "  robbed  of  all  the  negroes  he  had, 
six  in  number." 

As  these  robberies  were  committed  on  friendly  chiefs,  and 
after  the  commencement  of  the  Seminole  war,  they  excited  the 
attention  and  alarm  of  the  officers  of  government,  and  hence 
probably  it  is  that  official  notice  was  taken  of  them.  They  may 
give  us  some  idea  of  the  provocations  which  preceded  and 
caused  the  war.  Indeed,  the  documents  before  us  incidentally 
show,  that  the  "  likely  negroes  "  of  the  Seminoles  now  in  arms, 
were  as  strongly  coveted  by  the  whites,  as  the  slaves  of  the  friend 
ly  chiefs.  By  a  treaty  made  with  the  Seminoles  in  1832,  the 
Federal  Government,  with  its  usual  solicitude  for  the  interests 
of  slave-holders,  assumed  the  payment  of  all  claims  on  the 
Indians  for  "  SLAVES  and  other  property,"  to  the  amount  of 
$7,000.  A  scramble  of  course  ensued  for  the  money,  and  a 
voluminous  correspondence  took  place  between  the  agent  and 
the  Secretary  of  War,  respecting  claims  for  Indian  slaves ;  and 
it  appears  that  the  Seminoles  had  been  harassed  for  years  by  the 
contrivances  of  the  whites  to  rob  them  of  their  slaves.  The 
following  is  a  sample.  It  seems  that  a  Mrs.  Hanna  claimed  a 
negro  woman  and  her  increase,  in  possession  of  the  Seminoles. 
The  claim  had  been  made  known  to  the  War  Department,  and  so 
long  ago  as  the  8th  of  March,  1828,  the  following  mandate  had 
been  issued  to  the  Indian  agent : 

"  The  Secretary  of  War  directs  that  you  forthwith  deliver  to  Mary 
Hanna,  widow,  or  her  agent,  the  slaves  claimed  by  her,  and  take  a 
bond  imposing  the  obligation  on  her  to  abide  by  such  decision  as  it 
may  be  esteemed  proper  to  seek,  in  testing  the  right  of  ownership  in 
the  property  in  question." 

We  have  here  a  specimen  of  the  justice  meted  by  our  govern 
ment  to  the  Indians.  A  woman  claims  a  slave  in  the  possession 
of  an  Indian.  Without  the  slightest  inquiry  into  the  justice 
of  the  claim,  the  property  is  ordered  to  be  wrested  forthwith 


316  JAY'S  WORKS. 

from  the  possessor  and  delivered  to  the  claimant,  and  then,  as 
if  in  utter  mockery,  the  woman  is  to  give  her  bond  to  abide  any 
decision  that  may  hereafter  be  made  as  to  the  legality  of  her 
claim.  Who  is  to  obtain  this  decision  ?  Certainly  not  the 
woman ;  and  should  the  poor  ignorant  Indian  go  to  law,  where 
would  he  look  for  Mrs.  Hanna  or  her  slaves  ?  From  some 
cause  not  explained,  the  wicked  and  absurd  order  of  the  Secre 
tary  was  not  executed;  and  on  the  2d  of  March,  1835,  seven 
years  after,  a  second  order  from  the  Secretary  of  War  directed 
the  agent  "  to  afford  whatever  facilities  may  be  in  his  power, 
upon  the  claim  being  established  by  proper  proof  before  the  compe 
tent  tribunal,  to  have  the  property  restored  to  Mrs.  Hanna." 
Should  the  reader  be  struck  with  the  remarkable  moral  differ 
ence  between  these  two  orders,  the  explanation  is  easy, — the 
office  was  filled  at  the  time  of  the  first  order  by  a  slave-holder ; 
at  the  time  of  the  second,  by  a  northern  gentleman.  The  agent 
now  investigated  the  case,  and  it  was  discovered  that  the  father 
of  Mrs.  Hanna,  about  the  year  1815,  had  sold  the  woman  in 
question,  then  full  grown,  to  a  Seminole,  for  forty  steers,  and 
had  afterwards,  as  was  alleged,  given  the  same  woman  to  his 
daughter ;  and  on  this  pretended  gift  Mrs.  Hanna  claimed,  not 
merely  the  woman,  who  had  now  lived  twenty-five  years  with 
the  Indians,  but  also  all  the  children  she  had  borne  within  that 
tune! 

On  the  12th  of  December,  1834,  the  agent  wrote  to  the  Secre 
tary,  that  a  Seminole  woman  of  the  name  of  Nelly,  inherited 
from  her  father  "  a  considerable  number  of  slaves,"  that  a  man 
named  Floyd  claims  the  whole  of  them  by  virtue  of  a  bill  of 
sale,  and  that  Nelly  insists  that  "  Floyd  imposed  on  her  by  pre 
senting  for  her  signature  a  bill  of  sale  for  all  the  negroes, 
instead  of  a  written  authority  to  him  to  recover  some  for  her."* 
The  agent  adds,  he  has  seen  no  one  who  pretends  that  Floyd 
paid  her  for  the  negroes,  and  that  the  universal  impression  is, 
that  she  was  grossly  imposed  upon. 

If  civilized  and  Christian  slave-holders  are  ready  to  murder, 
or,  to  use  Mr.  Preston's  phrase,  to  HANG  abolitionists  for 

*A  portion  of  them  were  claimed  by  another  Indian. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       317 

questioning  their  moral  right  to  hold  property  in  man,  we  may 
judge  what  must  have  been  the  exasperation  of  the  Seminoles 
at  these  multiplied  attempts  to  rob  them  of  their  slaves. 

There  is  still  another  mode  in  which  slavery  has  operated  to 
produce  and  continue  the  war  in  Florida.  Although  the  expul 
sion  of  the  Seminoles  from  the  peninsula  was  devoutly  desired 
by  the  whites,  no  inclination  was  felt  to  send  their  "likely 
negroes"  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Of  these  negroes  some 
were  stolen,  others  claimed  under  fraudulent  pretexts,  and 
others  it  was  proposed  to  purchase  of  their  masters.  General  B. 
K.  Call  addressed  a  letter  to  President  Jackson,  (March  22, 
1835,)  asking  leave  "to  purchase  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY" 
of  the  Seminole  negroes.  "  These  negroes,"  he  affirms,  "  are 
violently  opposed  to  leaving  the  country.  If  the  Indians  are 
permitted  to  convert  them  into  SPECIE,  one  great  obstacle  in  the 
way  of  removal  may  be  overcome."  The  applicant  was  in 
formed  that  no  permission  was  necessary,  there  being  no  legal 
prohibition  to  the  Indians  selling  their  slaves.  Agents  were 
forthwith  despatched  to  the  nation,  to  buy  up  negroes.  Mr.  W. 
Thompson,  the  agent,  however,  assumed  the  responsibility  of 
prohibiting  these  agents  from  commencing  their  negotiations ; 
and  assigned  his  reasons  in  a  very  able  letter  to  the  Secretary 
of  War  (April  27,  1835): 

"  The  intercourse  laws,"  he  remarked,  "  prohibited  the  purchase  of 
an  Indian  pony  by  a  member  of  civilized  society,  without  permission 
from  the  agent ;  and  why,  but  because  the  Indian  is  considered  in  a 
state  of  pupilage,  and  incapable  of  protecting  himself  against  the  arts 
and  wiles  of  civilized  man  ?  If  the  Indian's  interest  in  a  pony  is  of  so 
much  importance  in  the  estimation  of  the  government,  as  to  require 
such  strict  guards  to  be  thrown  around  it,  the  protection  of  his  interest 
in  his  slave  should  be  esteemed  more  important,  by  as  much  as  the 
latter  is  more  valuable  than  the  former  species  of  property.  If,  in  the 
regulation  of  the  sale  of  ponies,  the  United  States  exercise  a  rightful 
power,  the  obligation  on  them  to  guard  the  interest  of  the  Indian  in 
nis  slave,  is  greatly  more  imposing.  The  negroes  in  the  nation  dread 
the  idea  of  being  transferred  from  their  present  state  of  ease  and  com 
parative  liberty,  to  bondage  and  hard  labor,  under  overseers,  on  sugar 
and  cotton  plantations. 

"  They  have  always  had  a  great  influence  over  the  Indians.  They 
live  in  villages  separate,  and  in  many  instances  remote  from  their 
owners,  and  enjoying  equal  liberty  with  their  owners,  with  the  single 
exception  that  the  slave  supplies  his  owner  annually  from  the  product 


318  JAY'S  WORKS. 

of  his  little  field,  with  corn  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  the  crop — 
in  no  instance  that  has  come  to  my  knowledge,  exceeding  ten  bushels ; 
the  residue  is  considered  the  property  of  the  slave.  Many  of  these 
slaves  have  stocks  of  horses,  cows  and  hogs,  with  which  the  Indian 
owner  never  assumes  a  right  to  intermeddle.  I  am  thus  particular  on 
this  point,  that  you  may  understand  the  true  cause  of  the  abhorrence  of 
the  negroes,  of^every  idea  of  change.  And  the  indulgence  so  extended 
to  the  slave,  will  enable  you  to  credit  the  assertion,  that  an  Indian 
would  almost  as  soon  sell  his  child  as  his  slave,  except  when  under  the 
influence  of  intoxicating  liquors." 

We  have  here  a  picture  of  certainly  a  very  extraordinary 
system  of  slavery.  Slaves  abhorring  a  change,  and  masters  no 
more  thinking  of  selling  a  slave  than  a  child !  But  then  these 
Indians  were  heathen,  and  perhaps  it  was  from  not  adverting  to 
this  fact,  that  General  Call  took  for  granted  they  would  be  glad 
to  convert  men,  women,  and  children  into  SPECIE.  President 
Jackson  was  equally  inconsiderate.  The  agent  was  answered  : 

"  The  President  is  of  opinion  that  the  opportunity  to  SELL  their 
slaves  will  be  an  inducement  for  the  Seminoles  to  remove.  .  .  .  Nor 
is  it  considered  that  the  permission  to  the  Indians  to  sell  would  be  an 
inhuman  act.  It  is  not  to  be  presumed  the  condition  of  these  slaves 
would  be  worse  than  that  of  others  in  the  same  section  of  country." 

To  this  presumption  of  executive  philanthropy,  the  agent 
forcibly  replied,  June  17th,  1835  : 

"  The  remark  in  your  letter  that  '  it  is  not  to  be  presumed  the 
condition  of  these  slaves  would  be  worse  than  that  of  others  in  the 
same  section  of  country/  is  true ;  yet  you  will  agree  with  me,  that  the 
same  remark  would  be  applicable  to  myself,  or  to  any  other  individual  in 
the  United  States,  as  we  should,  if  subjected  to  slavery,  be  in  the  pre 
cise  condition  of  our  fellow  slaves.  .  .  .  Any  one  at  all  acquainted 
with  the  condition  of  the  negro,  as  connected  with  his  Indian  owner 
here,  could  not  fail  to  admit  that  the  change  with  him  would  be 
oppressively  great." 

Mr.  Thompson  farther  remarked  to  the  Secretary  of  War : 

"  If  the  Department  could  be  satisfied  that  the  undeniable  abhorrence 
of  the  negroes  in  this  nation  to  the  idea  of  being  transferred  from  the 
present  state  of  ease  and  comparative  freedom,  to  sugar  and  cotton 
plantations,  under  the  control  of  severe  task-masters,*  had  been  made 

*  Mr.  Thompson  was  not  an  abolitionist,  but  had  lately  been  a  representa 
tive  in  Congress  from  the  State  of  Georgia. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       319 

to  subserve  the  views  of  government,  by  inducing  the  negroes  to  exert 
their  known  influence  over  the  Indians,  through  pledges  made  to  them, 
accompanied  by  assurances  that  their  removal  west  would,  more  than 
any  thing  else,  serve  to  secure  the  existing  relations  between  them  and 
the  Indians,  then  surely  the  Department,  instead  of  classing  them  with 
the  Indian  skins  and  furs,  would  require  a  punctilious  redemption  ol 
those  pledges.  I  have  not  heard  of  a  solitary  Indian  desiring  the 
privilege  to  sell." 

The  President  at  last  yielded,  and  the  agent  was  authorized 
to  prohibit  any  person  entering  the  nation  to  buy  slaves.  But 
it  was  too  late :  the  negroes  well  knew  how  anxious  the  whites 
were  to  possess  them,  and  they  reasonably  feared  that  if  the 
Indians  were  expelled,  instead  of  being  permitted  to  accompany 
their  kind  masters,  they  would  be  consigned  to  the  cruel  and 
detested  service  of  Georgia  and  Alabama  planters.  Hence, 
impelled  by  the  most  powerful  motives  which  can  stimulate  the 
heart  and  nerve  the  arm  of  man,  they  resisted  to  the  utmost  the 
emigration  of  their  masters,  and  in  the  deadly  struggle  that 
ensued,  evinced  their  devotion  to  the  Indians,  and  their  abhor 
rence  of  the  whites,  by  a  ferocious  and  successful  courage  which 
may  well  send  a  thrill  of  fearful  anticipation  throughout  the 
slave-region. 

We  now  submit  to  our  readers  whether  the  facts  we  have 
exhibited  do  not  prove  beyond  all  doubt  that  the  blood  and 
treasure  expended  in  the  Florida  war,  have  been  expended  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  breaking  up  a  refuge  for  fugitive  slaves  ;  and 
that  the  Seminoles  have  been  goaded  into  their  extraordinary 
and  desperate  resistance,  by  the  frauds  and  robberies  of  slave 
holders  ? 

THE  EFFORTS  OF  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT  TO  PREVENT 
THE  ABOLITION  OF  SLAVERY  IN  THE  ISLAND  OF  CUBA. 

At  the  time  of  the  Congress  of  Panama,  Spain  was  still  at 
War  with  her  late  colonies,  and  of  course  they  were  authorized, 
by  every  principle  of  national  law,  as  well  as  of  self-defence,  to 
carry  their  arms  into  the  dominions  of  their  enemy.  Cuba  was 
.at  a  short  distance,  devoted  to  the  royal  cause,  and  affording  a 
depot  for  a  naval  force  ever  ready  to  prey  upon  the  commerce 


320  JAY'S  WORKS. 

of  the  republics.  Under  these  circumstances,  Mexico  and  Co 
lombia  meditated  the  invasion  and  conquest  of  that  island.  But 
these  republics,  on  achieving  their  own  freedom,  had  given 
freedom  to  their  slaves ;  and  it  was  probable  that  they  would 
manifest  equal  regard  for  human  rights,  were  they  to  become 
masters  of  Cuba.  These  remarks  will  explain  the  following 
extract  from  the  instructions  given  to  the  ministers  appointed  to 
represent  the  United  States  at  the  Congress  : 

"  It  is  required  by  the  frank  and  friendly  relations  which  we  most 
anxiously  desire  ever  to  cherish  with  the  new  republics,  that  you  should, 
without  reserve,  explicitly  state  that  the  United  States  have  too  much 
at  stake,  in  the  fortunes  of  Cuba,  to  allow  them  to  see  with  indifference 
a  war  of  invasion  prosecuted  in  a  desolating  manner,  or  to  see  employed, 
hi  the  purposes  of  such  a  war,  one  race  of  the  inhabitants  combating 
against  another,  upon  principles  and  with  motives  that  must  inevitably 
lead,  if  not  to  the  extermination  of  one  party  or  the  other,  to  the 
most  shocking  excesses.  The  humanity  of  the  United  States  in  re 
spect  to  the  weaker,  and  which  in  such  a  terrible  struggle  would'prob- 
ably  be  the  suffering  portion,  and  the  duty  to  defend  themselves  against 
the  contagion  of  such  near  and  dangerous  examples,  would  constrain 
them,  even  at  the  hazard  of  losing  the  friendship  of  Mexico  and  Co-, 
lombia,  to  employ  all  the  means  necessary  to  their  security."* 

The  obvious  meaning  of  all  this,  in  plain  English,  divested  of 
its  diplomatic  circumlocution,  is  simply  that  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment,  in  order  to  protect  the  slavery  of  the  South  from  the 
shock  it  might  receive  from  emancipation  in  Cuba,  would,  if 
necessary,  go  to  war  with  our  sister  republics  to  prevent  the 
invasion  of  that  island. 

But  so  long  as  Spain  refused  to  acknowledge  the  independence 
of  her  revolted  colonies,  the  war  would  be  continued,  Cuba  would 
be  exposed  to  invasion,  and  the  slave  States  to  the  "  contagion," 
of  emancipation.  Hence  the  cabinet  at  Washington  became 
exceedingly  anxious  to  act  the  part  of  peace-makers.  Our 
Minister  at  St.  Petersburg  was  instructed  "to  endeavor  to  en 
gage  the  Russian  Government  to  contribute  its  best  exertions 
towards  terminating  the  existing  contest  between  Spain  and  her 
colonies.  From  the  vicinity  of  Cuba  to  the  United  States,  its 

*  Letter  of  Instructions  from  Mr.  Clay,   Secretary  of  State,  to  Messrs. 
Anderson  and  Sargent,  May  8th,  1826. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       321 

valuable  commerce,  and  the  nature  of  its  population,  their  gov 
ernment  cannot  be  indifferent  to  any  political  change  to  which 
that  island  may  be  destined."* 

Spain  also  was  implored,  through  the  American  Minister  at 
Madrid*  to  be  reconciled  to  her  undutiful  children. 

"It  is  not  for  the  new  republics"  said  Mr.  Clay  in  his  letter,  (27th 
April,  1825,)  to  Mr.  Everett,  "that  the  President  wishes  you  to  urge 
upon  Spain  the  expediency  of  concluding  the  war.  If  the  war  should 
continue  between  Spain  and  the  new  republics,  and  those  islands 
(Cuba  and  Porto  Rico)  should  become  the  object  and  theatre  of  it, 
their  fortunes  have  such  a  connection  with  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  that  they  could  not  be  indifferent  spectators ;  and  the  possible 
contingencies  of  a  protracted  war  might  bring  upon  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  duties  and  obligations,  the  performance  of  which,  how 
ever  painful  it  should  be,  they  might  not  be  at  liberty  to  decline."^ 

The  proposed  invasion  was  abandoned ;  but  the  fears  of  our 
government  were  not  allayed.  The  war  continued,  and  some 
contingency  arising  from  it  might  give  liberty  to  the  tens  of 
thousands  in  Cuba  pining  in  bonds.  A  new  attempt  was  made 
to  induce  Spain  to  remove  the  danger  by  concluding  the  war. 
On  the  22d  of  October,  1829,  Mr.  Van  Buren,  then  Secretary 
of  State,  instructed  Mr.  Van  Ness,  our  Minister  in  Spain,  to 
press  upon  that  court  a  reconciliation  with  the  South  American 
republics. 

"  Considerations,"  he  remarked,  "  connected  with  a  certain  class  of 
our  population,  make  it  the  interest  of  the  southern  section  of  the  Union, 
that  no  attempt  should  be  made  in  that  island  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of 
Spanish  dependence ;  the  first  effect  of  which  would  be  the  sudden 
emancipation  of  a  numerous  slave  population,  whose  result  could  not  but 
be  very  sensibly  felt  upon  the  adjacent  shores  of  the  United  States" 

Fortunate  is  it  for  the  cause  of  humanity,  that  the  greatest 
republic  upon  earth  had  not  the  power  to  prevent  "  the  sudden 
emancipation  of  a  numerous  slave  population "  in  the  British 
West  Indies,  on  the  1st  of  August,  1838,  "whose  result,"  blessed 

*  Letter  from  Mr.  Clay  to  Mr.  Middleton,  10th  May,  1825. 
f  Senate  Documents,  1st  Sess.,  19  Cong.,  Vol.  iii. 
28 


322  JAYS    WORKS. 

be   God,  is  and  will   be   "very  sensibly   felt  on  the  adjacent 
shores  of  the  United  States."  * 

The  subject  of  the  Panama  mission  was  debated  at  great 
length  in  both  Houses  of  Congress,  and  frequent  allusions  Avere 
made  by  the  speakers  to  Cuba.  Let  us  hearken  to  the  senti 
ments  expressed  by  some  of  our  republican  legislators. 

Mr.  RANDOLPH  of  Virginia : — "  Cuba  possesses  an  immense  negro 
population.  In  case  those  States  (Mexico  and  Colombia)  should  invade 
Cuba  at  all,  it  is  unquestionable  that  this  invasion  will  be  made  with 
this  principle,  —  this  genius  of  universal  emancipation,  —  this  sweeping 
anathema  against  the  white  population  in  front,  —  and  then  sir,  what  is 
the  situation  of  the  southern  States?  " 

Mr.  JOHNSON  of  Louisiana  : — "  We  know  that  Colombia  and  Mexico 
have  long  contemplated  the  independence  of  that  island  (Cuba.)  The 
final  decision  is  now  to  be  made,  and  the  combination  of  forces  and 
plan  of  attack  to  be  formed.  What,  then,  at  such  a  crisis,  becomes 
the  duty  of  the  Government  ?  Send  your  ministers  instantly  to  this 
diplomatic  assembly,  where  the  measure  is  maturing.  Advise  with 
them  —  remonstrate  —  MENACE,  if  necessary,  against  a  step  so  danger 
ous  to  us,  and  perhaps  fatal  to  them." 

Mr.  BERRIEN  of  Georgia  : — "  The  question  to  be  determined  is  this : 
With  a  due  regard  to  the  safety  of  the  southern  States,  can  you  suffer 
these  islands  (Cuba  and  Porto  Rico)  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  BUC 
CANEERS,  drunk  with  their  new-born  liberty?  If  our  interests  and 
our  safety  shall  require  us  to  say  to  these  new  republics,  Cuba  and 
Porto  Rico  must  remain  as  they  are,  we  are  free  to  say  it,  and  by  the 
blessing  of  God  and  the  strength  of  our  arms,  to  enforce  the  declara 
tion  ;  and  let  me  say  to  gentlemen,  these  high  considerations  do  require 
it.  The  vital  interests  of  the  South  demand  it." 

These  new  republics  were  stigmatized  by  this  honorable  gen 
tleman  as  buccaneers  ;  not  that  they  were  robbers,  but  because 
they  had  ceased  to  rob  the  poor  and  helpless ;  and  the  evidence 
of  their  being  drunk  with  liberty,  was  their  practical  acknowl- 

*The  following  extract  from  the  Raleigh  Register  (N.  C.)  proves  that  the 
idea  of  interference  by  our  Government  to  prevent  West  India  emancipation 
was  contemplated  by  some  of  the  slave-holders. 

"  Emancipation  of  West  India  Slavery. 

"  The  news  brought  by  the  late  arrivals  of  the  determination  of  Great 
Britain,  to  emancipate  the  slaves  of  her  West  India  Islands,  is  replete  with 
interest  to  the  people  of  this  Union.  If  such  a  measure  is  in  contemplation, 
and  we  see  no  reason  to  doubt  it,  can  our  Government  look  quietly  on,  and  sec 
it  consummated?  " 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       323 

edgment  of  the  principles  of  human  rights,  professed  in  our 
declaration  of  independence. 

Mr.  FLOYD  of  Virginia :  —  "So  far  as  I  can  see,  in  all  its  bearings,  it 

She  Panama  Congress)  looks  to  the  conquest  of  Cuba  and  Porto 
ico ;  or,  at  all  events,  of  tearing  them  from  the  crown  of  Spain.  The 
interests,  if  not  safety  of  our  own  country,  would  rather  require  us  to 
interpose  to  prevent  such  an  event,  and  I  would  rather  take  up  arms 
to  prevent  than  to  accelerate  such  an  occurrence."  Congressional 
Debates,  2d  vol. 

The  facts  and  sentiments  we  have  now  exhibited,  prove  beyond 
cavil,  that  this  mighty  republic  volunteered  to  solicit  the  aid  of 
foreign  monarchs  to  perpetuate  slavery  in  Cuba,  and  was  strongly 
disposed  to  incur  the  hazard  and  calamities  of  war  in  the  cause, — 
not  of  liberty,  but  of  bondage. 

Having  noticed  our  watchful  guardianship  over  Cuba,  we  will 
next  advert  to 

THE    HOSTILITY  OF    THE    FEDERAL    GOVERNMENT    TO    HAYTI. 

To  do  justice  to  this  part  of  our  subject,  we  must  beg  the 
patience  of  the  reader  while  we  briefly  lay  before  him  a  few 
historical  facts. 

The  Island  of  St.  Domingo  was  one  of  the  most  valuable 
colonies  belonging  to  the  crown  of  France.  It  is  about  450 
miles  long,  and  150  wide.  Its  population  in  1790,  was  esti 
mated  as  follows : 

White  inhabitants, 42,000 

Free  colored  inhabitants, 44,000 

Slaves, 600,000 


Total, 686,000 

Of  the  free  colored  inhabitants,  numerically  equal  with  the 
whites,  many  were  men  of  education  and  property,  landed  pro 
prietors,  and  the  holders  of  slaves.  Still  they  were  debarred 
from  all  political  privileges  on  account  of  their  complexion.  At 
the  commencement  of  the  French  Revolution,  the  National 
Assembly  abolished  this  discrimination  on  account  of  color,  and 
gave  the  free  blacks  in  the  colonies,  the  same  civil  rights  that 


324  JAY'S  WORKS. 

were  possessed  by  their  white  brethren.  The  pride  of  the  latter 
led  them  to  refuse  submission  to  this  humiliating  decree  of  the 
mother  country,  and  a  civil  war  between  the  whites  and  the  free 
blacks  ensued.  No  interference  whatever  with  the  rights  of 
slave-holders  as  such,  had  at  this  time  been  attempted,  either 
in  France  or  the  colony ;  and  the  dissensions  which  convulsed 
the  island,  for  a  long  time  related  exclusively  to  the  political 
condition  of  the  free  colored  population.  In  August,  1791,  a 
partial  insurrection  of  the  slaves  occurred,  favored  by  the  quar 
rels  of  their  masters.  In  some  instances  the  free  blacks  united 
with  the  whites,  in  their  efforts  to  suppress  the  insurrection,  and 
in  others,  they  availed  themselves  of  the  aid  of  the  revolted 
slaves,  against  the  planters. 

In  1792,  the  French  Government  sent  over  three  commis 
sioners,  with  6000  troops,  to  enforce  their  decree  respecting  the 
free  blacks,  and  to  restore  order.  Many  of  the  planters,  how 
ever,  still  resisted,  while  others  took  sides  with  the  Government ; 
and  the  distractions  of  the  island  were  now  aggravated  by  a 
civil  war  between  the  whites  themselves. 

A  portion  of  the  planters,  abhorring  the  attempt  of  the  Gov 
ernment  to  elevate  the  free  blacks  to  a  political  equality  with 
themselves,  now  intrigued  with  Great  Britain  to  seize  upon  the 
island,  and  thus  to  save  them  from  the  degrading  consequences 
of  republican  principles.  In  compliance  with  their  invitation, 
conveyed  through  their  agent,  M.  Charmilly,  an  expedition  was 
fitted  out  at  Jamaica,  for  the  capture  of  St.  Domingo ;  and  on 
the  19th  of  September,  1793,  arrived  'at  Jeremie.  Only  a  few 
days  before  the  appearance  of  the  British  fleet  on  the  coast, 
one  of  the  French  commissioners,  who  happened  at  the  moment 
to  be  acting  alone,  in  the  absence  of  his  colleagues,  having 
received  intelligence  of  the  intended  invasion,  and  knowing 
the  disaffection  of  the  planters,  issued  a  hasty  proclamation, 
giving  freedom  to  all  the  slaves,  as  the  only  means  of  preserv 
ing  the  colony  from  conquest.* 

The  free  negroes  and  the  manumitted  slaves  united  in  defend- 

*  The  ensuing  year,  1794,  by  a  decree  of  the  National  Assembly,  slavery 
was  formally  abolished  throughout  all  the  French  colonies. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       325 

ing  the  island  against  the  invaders,  while  an  army  of  2000  of 
the  white  inhabitants  ranged  themselves  under  the  British 
standard.  The  French  commissioners  soon  after  returned  to 
France ;  great  numbers  of  the  planters  emigrated ;  and  the 
island  was  virtually  abandoned  to  the  blacks,  except  so  much  of 
it  as  was  occupied  by  the  British  troops.  These  troops  were 
from  time  to  time  reinforced  by  detachments  from  Europe  and 
the  West  Indies  —  but  in  vain.  The  blacks  under  Toussaint, 
who  was  appointed  by  the  government  at  home,  "  Governor 
General  of  the  armies  of  St.  Domingo,"  continued  the  contest 
for  about  five  years,  and  finally  succeeded  in  driving  the  English 
from  the  island.  Britain  being  in  the  mean  time  at  war  with 
France,  her  naval  forces  prevented  all  intercourse  between  the 
colony  and  the  mother  country :  and  the  blacks,  thus  left  to 
themselves,  declared  themselves  independent  on  the  1st  of  July, 
1798,  and  organized  the  Government  of  HAYTI. 

The  peace  of  Ameins  afforded  Bonaparte  an  opportunity  to 
attempt  the  subjugation  of  the  island,  and  the  reduction  of  its 
inhabitants  to  slavery. 

Early  in  January,  1802,  a  French  army  of  20,000  men  was 
landed  in  St.  Domingo,  and  various  reinforcements  afterwards 
followed. 

The  war  was  waged  with  atrocious  cruelty  on  the  part  of  the 
French,  and  the  blacks,  aided  by  the  climate,  succeeded  in  de 
stroying  about  40,000  of  their  enemies  in  eleven  months  ;  and 
on  the  19th  of  November,  1802,  the  wrecks  of  the  invading 
army  surrendered  to  Dessalines,  the  black  chief.  Since  this 
time  Hayti  has  continued  an  independent  nation,  perfectly  inof 
fensive  in  all  its  foreign  relations  ;  and  its  entire  sovereignty  is 
at  present  fully  acknowledged  by  both  France  and  England,  and 
undisputed  by  any  power  on  earth. 

It  is  now  important  to  inquire,  what  has  been  the  conduct  of 
the  United  States  towards  this  heroic  republic  ? 

Twelve  years  after  slavery  had  been  abolished  by  a  decree  of 

the  French  Government ;  after  the  expulsion  of  the  armies  of 

England  and  France ;  when  for  three  years  not  a  hostile  foot 

had  pressed  the  soil  of  Hayti ;  when  a  regularly  organized  gov- 

28* 


326  JAY'S  WORKS. 

ernment  was  in  full  operation ;  and  without  one  solitary  cause 
of  complaint  against  the  new  State,  the  American  Congress 
passed  an  act,  (February  28, 1806,)  "to  suspend  the  commercial 
intercourse  between  the  United  States  and  certain  parts  of  the 
Island  of  St.  Domingo."  These  certain  parts  were  defined  in 
the  act,  to  be  such  parts  as  were  not  "  in  the  possession  and 
under  the  acknowledgment  of  France  ; "  and  of  course  included 
the  whole  island.  As  there  was  at  this  time  no  war  in  fact,  be 
tween  Hayti  and  France,  and  the  latter  was  prevented  by  the 
naval  superiority  of  England,  and  her  own  continental  wars, 
from  sending  a  single  soldier  to  Hayti,  the  sole  object  of  this 
act  was  to  distress  and  harass  the  Ilaytiens  by  depriving  them 
of  the  bread-stuffs  and  other  necessaries  they  were  accustomed 
to  receive  from  this  country.  It  was  a  piece  of  wanton  cruelty, 
unrequired  by  the  obligations  of  neutrality ;  and  demanded  by 
France  in  a  tone  of  arrogance,  which  would  have  secured  its 
rejection,  had  not  the  intended  victims  been  black.  Bonaparte, 
irritated  by  the  loss  of  his  army,  and  the  defeat  of  his  designs 
upon  Hayti,  resolved  to  starve,  if  possible,  a  people  whom  he 
could  not  conquer ;  and  he  found  in  the  Federal  Government,  a 
willing  instrument  of  his  vengeance.  His  Minister  at  Wash 
ington,  in  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  demanded  an 
immediate  cessation  of  the  commerce  between  the  citizens  of 
the  United  States  and  "  the  rebels  of  St.  Domingo  —  that  race 
of  African  slaves,  the  reproach  and  the  refuse  of  nature  ; "  and 
he  enforced  his  demand  with  the  information :  "  The  Emperor 
and  King,  my  master,  expects  from  the  dignity  and  candor  of 
the  Government  of  the  Union,  that  an  end  be  put  to  it  prompt 
ly."  *  The  letter  was  written  in  January ;  and  in  February  the 
act  required  was  passed,  and  continued  in  force  for  two  years. 

The  invitation  to  the  United  States  to  send  ministers  to  the 
Congress  of  Panama,  has  been  already  mentioned.  In  the  doc 
ument  conveying  the  invitation,  it  was  remarked  : 

"  On  what  basis  the  relations  of  Hayti,  and  other  parts  of  our  hem 
isphere  that  shall  hereafter  be  in  like  circumstances,  arc  to  be  placed, 
Is  a  question  simple  at  first  view,  but  attended  with  serious  difficulties 

*  American  State  Papers,  Vol.  Y,  p.  154. 


I 

ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       327 

when  closely  examined.  These  arise  from  the  different  manner  of 
regarding  Africans,  and  from  their  different  rights  in  Hayti,  the  United 
States,  and  in  the  American  States.  This  question  will  be  determined 
at  the  Isthmus."  * 

The  invitation  was  accepted,  and  the  instructions  to  our  min 
isters  contained  the  following : 

"  Under  the  actual  circumstances  of  Hayti,  the  President  does  not 
think  that  it  would  be  proper  at  this  time  to  recognize  it  as  a  new 
State."  f 

This,  be  it  remembered,  was  just  a  quarter  of  a  century  since 
the  Haytiens  had  declared  and  maintained  their  independence, 
and  at  a  moment  when  they  were  enjoying  the  blessings  and 
exercising  the  prerogatives  of  an  independent  State,  and  at 
peace  with  all  the  world.  And  what  motive  prompted  the 
United  States  thus  to  exert  its  influence  to  prevent  the  Congress 
of  Panama  from  recognizing  Hayti  "  as  a  new  State  ?  "  —  none 
other  than  the  apprehension  that  the  admission  of  a  palpable 
truth,  the  independence  of  a  black  republic,  would  prove  dan 
gerous  to  the  perpetuity  of  American  slavery.  Is  this  slander  ? 
Let  the  members  of  Congress  speak  for  themselves.  The  fol 
lowing  sentiments  were  elicited  in  the  debate  on  the  Panama 
mission  : 

Mr.  BERRIEN  of  Georgia : — "  Consistently  with  our  own  safety,  can 
the  people  of  the  South  permit  the  intercourse  which  would  result 
from  establishing  relations  of  any  sort  with  Hayti?  Is  the  eman 
cipated  slave,  his  hands  yet  reeking  "  (thirty-two  years  after  slavery- 
had  been  abolished  by  the  French  Government)  "  in  the  blood  of  his 
murdered  master,  to  be  admitted  into  their  ports,  to  spread  the  doc 
trines  of  insurrection,  and  to  strengthen  and  invigorate  them,  by  ex 
hibiting  in  his  own  person  an  example  of  successful  revolt  ?  Gentle 
men  must  be  sensible,  this  cannot  be.  The  great  principle  of  self- 
preservation  will  be  arrayed  against  it.  I  have  been  educated  in  senti 
ments  of  habitual  reverence  for  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  : 
I  have  been  taught  to  consider  the  union  of  these  States  as  essential  to 
their  safety.  The  feeling  is  nowhere  more  universal  or  more  strong 
than  among  the  people  of  the  South.  But  they  have  a  stronger  feeling : 
need  I  name  it  ?  Is  there  any  who  hears  and  does  not  understand  me  ? 
Let  me  implore  gentlemen  not  to  call  that  feeling  into  action  by  this 
disastrous  policy." 

*  Senate  Documents,  1st  Sess.,  19  Cong.,  Vol.  iii. 

t  Letter  of  Mr.  Clay,  Secretary  of  State,  8th  May,  1826. 


328  JAY'S  WORKS. 

In  plain  English,  the  slave-holders  love  slavery  more  than 
they  do  the  Union ;  and  would  sacrifice  the  last,  rather  than 
acknowledge  as  free,  a  people  who  had  once  been  slaves. 

Mr.  BENTON  of  Missouri :  — "  The  peace  of  eleven  States  in  this 
Union  will  not  permit  the  fruits  of  a  successful  negro  insurrection  to  be 
exhibited  among  them ;  it  will  not  permit  the  fact  to  be  seen  and  told, 
that  for  the  murder  of  their  masters  and  mistresses,  they  are  to  find 
friends  among  the  white  people  of  the  United  States." 

Mr.  HAMILTON  of  South  Carolina :  —  "It  is  proper  that  on  this 
occasion  I  should  speak  with  candor  and  without  reserve  :  that  I  should 
avow  what  I  believe  to  be  the  sentiments  of  the  southern  people  on  this 
question ;  and  this  is,  that  Haytien  independence  is  not  to  be  tolerated  in 
any  form.  *  *  *  *  A  people  will  not  stop  to  discuss  the  nice 
metaphysics  of  a  federative  system,  when  havoc  and  destruction  menace 
them  in  their  doors." 

Mr.  HAYNE  of  South  Carolina  :  — "  With  nothing  connected  with 
slavery  can  we  consent  to  treat  with  other  nations ;  and  least  of  all 
ought  we  to  touch  the  question  of  the  independence  of  Hayti  in  con 
junction  with  the  revolutionary  governments  whose  own  history  affords 
an  example  scarcely  less  fatal  to  our  repose.  These  governments  have 
proclaimed  principles  of  liberty  and  equality,  and  have  marched  to 
victory  under  the  banner  of  universal  emancipation.  You  find  men 
of  color  at  the  head  of  their  armies,  in  the  Legislative  halls,  and  in  the 
Executive  departments.  *  *  *  *  Our  policy  with  regard  to 
Hayti  is  plain  ;  we  NEVER  can  acknowledge  her  independence.  *  * 

*  *  Let  our  Government  direct  all  our  Ministers  in  South  Amer 
ica  and  Mexico,  to  PROTEST  against  the  independence  of  Hayti." 

Gentlemen,  when  they  talk  in  a  passion,  rarely  talk  wisely  or 
consistently.  Mr.  Hayne  insists  that  we  cannot  touch  the  ques 
tion  of  the  independence  of  Hayti  in  conjunction  with  the 
American  revolutionary  governments ;  and  yet  in  the  next 
breath,  he  is  for  opening  negotiations  with  all  these  governments 
on  this  very  subject.  Almost  every  slave-holder  assures  us  that 
the  slaves,  if  emancipated,  could  not  take  care  of  themselves  ; 
and  yet  Mr.  Hayne  proclaims  the  important  fact,  that  the 
armies  of  these  same  governments  have  "marched  to  victory," 
with  colored  men  at  their  head ;  and  that  colored  men  are  found 
in  their  Legislative  halls  and  Executive  departments ! 

Mr.  JOHNSON  of  Louisiana  :  —  "It  may  be  proper  to  express  to  the 
South  American  States  the  unalterable  opinion  entertained  here  in 
regard  to  the  intercourse  with  them.  The  unadvised  recognition  of 
that  island,  (HaytH  and  the  public  reception  of  their  ministers,  will 
nearly  sever  our  diplomatic  intercourse,  and  bring  about  a  separation 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       329 

and  alienation  alike  injurious  to  both.  I  deem  it  of  the  highest  concern 
to  the  political  connection  of  these  countries,  to  remonstrate  against  a 
measure  so  justly  offensive  to  us,  and  to  make  that  remonstrance  EF 
FECTUAL."  Congressional  Debates,  Vol.  II. 

Thus  the  gentleman  from  Louisiana  looked  upon  the  recogni 
tion  of  Ilayti  by  other  and  independent  States,  as  a  measure  so 
offensive  to  us,  as  to  afford  us  ground  for  quarrelling  with  them. 

We  will  now  advance  twelve  years  in  our  history,  and  see  if 
the  lapse  of  time  has  softened  the  hatred  of  our  rulers  of  Hayti. 
On  the  17th  of  December,  1838,  a  petition  was  presented  to  the 
House  of  Representatives,  praying  for  the  establishment  of  the 
usual  international  relations  with  that  republic.  No  sooner  was 
the  purport  of  the  petition  announced,  than  vehement  objections 
were  made  to  it,  and  no  less  than  thirty-two  members  had  the 
hardihood  to  vote  against  even  its  reception.  They  were,  how 
ever,  in  the  minority ;  and  on  a  motion  being  made  to  refer  it 
to  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  the  chairman  of  that  com 
mittee,  himself  a  slave-holder,  advocated  the  reference,  as  the 
best  way  of  stifling  the  discussion,  observing  that  "  several  sim 
ilar  memorials  had  been  sent  there  the  last  session,  which  had 
never  been  reported  on.  This  would  take  a  similar  course ;  it 
would  never  be  heard  of  again  "  With  this  intimation,  the  peti 
tion  was  referred.  A  motion  was  then  made  to  instruct  the 
committee  to  report  on  the  petition  ;  but,  to  stop  the  discussion, 
the  previous  question  was  moved,  and  the  motion  denied  by  a 
great  majority.  A  few  extracts  from  the  speeches  delivered  on 
this  occasion  may  be  useful,  as  showing  the  temper  and  logic 
displayed  by  the  southern  members. 

Mr.  LEGARE  of  South  Carolina :  —  "It  (the  petition)  originates  in 
a  design  to  revolutionize  the  South  and  convulse  the  Union,  and  ought 
therefore  to  be  rejected  with  reprobation.  As  sure  as  you  live,  sir,  if 
this  course  is  permitted  to  go  on,  the  sun  of  this  Union  will  go  down  — 
it  will  go  down  in  BLOOD  —  and  go  down  to  rise  no  more.  I  will 
vote  unhesitatingly  against  nefarious  designs  like  these.  They  are 
treason  ;  yes,  sir,  I  pronounce  the  authors  of  such  things  traitors  — 
traitors  not  to  their  country  only,  but  to  the  WHOLE  HUMAN  RACE." 

Mr.  WISE  of  Virginia:  —  "We  are  called  to  recognize  the  insur 
rectionists  who  rose  on  their  French  masters.  A  large  portion  of  those 
now  in  power  in  this  black  republic,  are  slaves  who  cut  their  masters' 
throats.  Christophe  himself  was  an  insurrectionist  and  a  revolutionist. 


330  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Their  government  lias  the  stamp  of  such  an  origin.  And  will  any 
gentleman  tell  me  now,  that  slaves,  aided  by  an  English  army,  (and  it 
is  consolatory  to  think,  when  we  are  threatened  by  abolitionists  with 
having  our  throats  cut  at  the  South,  that  these  slaves  in  St.  Domingo, 
though  ten  to  one  in  number,  never  could  have  succeeded  in  insurrec 
tion,  but  for  the  aid  of  the  British  army,)  ought  to  be  recognized  by 
this  Government,  and  that  their  being  such  is  no  argument  against  it  ? 
No,  it  is  the  abolition  spirit  alone  which  would  have  us  say  to  these 
men,  whose  hands  are  yet  red  with  their  masters'  blood,  — '  You  shall 
be  recognized  as  freemen  ;  we  wish  to  establish  international  relations 
with  you.'  Never  will  I  — •  never  will  my  constituents  be  forced  into 
this.  This  is  the  only  body  of  men  who  have  emancipated  themselves 
by  butchering  their  masters.  They  have  long  been  free,  I  admit :  yet, 
if  they  had  been  free  for  centuries,  —  if  Time  himself  should  confront 
me,  and  shake  his  hoary  locks  at  my  opposition,  —  I  should  say  to  him, 
I  owe  more  to  my  constituents  —  to  the  quiet  of  my  people  —  than  I 
owe  or  can  owe  to  mouldy  prescriptions,  however  ancient." 

The  consolation  enjoyed  by  this  gentleman,  from  the  convic 
tion  that  the  Haytiens  are  indebted  to  a  British  army  for  their 
liberty,  is  not  a  little  ludicrous.  There  has  never  been  but  one 
British  army  in  Hayti,  and  that  was  sent  for  the  purpose,  not 
of  emancipation,  but  of  conquest;  and  instead  of  aiding  the 
blacks,  it  was  joined  by  two  thousand  of  the  planters,  who 
looked  to  it  as  the  means  by  which  they  were  to  recover  their 
authority  over  their  former  slaves.  Yet  this  army,  thus  aided, 
found  itself  vanquished  by  the  depised  blacks ;  and  in  May, 
1798,  under  Brigadier  General  Maitland,  capitulated  to  Tous- 
saint,  the  black  general.  The  history  of  St.  Domingo  affords 
much  and  valuable  instruction  to  slave-holders,  but  certainly 
very  little  consolation. 

It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  state  a  few  facts  relative  to  the 
present  condition  of  a  republic  which  so  powerfully  excites  the 
apprehensions  of  southern  gentlemen,  and  to  the  magnitude  of 
the  commerce  which  our  northern  politicians  are  willing  to  sac 
rifice  for  southern  votes. 

The  advocates  of  slavery  are  fond  of  representing  the  Hay 
tiens  as  a  horde  of  barbarians.  We  therefore  give  the  following 
evidence,  published  by  the  British  Parliament,  and  taken  before 
one  of  its  committees. 

Evidence  of  Vice  Admiral,  the  Hon.  Charles  Fleming,  Member  of 
Parliament :  —  u  He  could  not  speak  positively  of  the  increase  of  the 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       331 

Haytien  population  since  1804,  but  believed  it  had  trebled  since  that 
time.*  They  now  feed  themselves,  and  they  export  provisions,  which 
neither  the  French  nor  the  Spaniards  had  ever  done  before.  He  saw 
a  sugar  estate  near  Cape  Haytien,  General  Boulon's,  extremely  well 
cultivated  and  in  beautiful  order.  A  new  plantation  was  forming  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  road.  Their  victuals  were  very  superior  to 
those  in  Jamaica,  consisting  chiefly  of  meat,  cattle  being  very  cheap. 
He  saw  no  marks  of  destitution  anywhere.  The  country  seemed  im 
proving,  and  trade  increasing.  The  estate  he  visited  near  the  Cape 
was  large  ;  it  was  calculated  to  make  three  hundred  hogsheads  of  sugar. 
It  was  as  beautifully  laid  out  and  as  well  managed  as  any  estate  he  had 
seen  in  the  West  Indies.  His  official  correspondence  as  Admiral  with 
the  Haytien  Government,  made  him  attribute  much  efficiency  to  it, 
and  it  bore  strong  marks  of  civilization.  There  was  a  better  policy  in 
Hayti  than  in  the  new  South  American  States  ;  the  communication 
was  more  rapid ;  the  roads  were  much  better.  One  had  been  cut  from 
Port-au-Prince  to  Cape  Haytien  that  would  do  honor  to  any  country. 
A  regular  port  was  established.  The  government  is  one  quite  worthy 
of  a  civilized  people." 

"In  1831,  the  imports  into  France  from  Hayti  exceeded  in  value 
the  imports  from  Sweden,  Denmark,  the  Hanseatic  Towns,  Holland, 
Austria,  Portugal,  the  French  West  Indies,  or  China."  McCullocJi's 
Dictionary  of  Commerce,  p.  637. 

In  1833,  the  imports  from  Hayti  into  the  United  States  ex 
ceeded  in  value  our  imports  from  Prussia,  Sweden  and  Norway, 
Denmark  and  the  Danish  West  Indies,  Ireland  and  Scotland, 
Holland,  Belgium,  Dutch  West  Indies,  British  West  Indies, 
Spain,  Portugal,  all  Italy,  Turkey  and  the  Levant,  or  any  one 
of  the  South  American  republics.  And  what  protection  is 
afforded  to  tliis  commerce  by  the  Federal  Government  —  a  gov 
ernment  willing  to  negotiate  in  every  court  of  Europe  for  com 
pensation  for  shipwrecked  or  fugitive  negroes  ? 

"Our  trade  with  Hayti  is  embarrassed;  it  is  subjected  to  severe 
discriminating  duties.  We  are  probably  the  least  favored  of  any  peo 
ple  in  the  ports  of  the  republic.  Tonnage  duties  and  vexatious  port 
charges  discourage  and  oppress  our  commerce  there.  I  am  assured 
that,  but  for  these  impediments,  the  trade  from  this  country  with  that 
would  be  greatly  extended.  The  acknowledged  cause  of  all  the  em 
barrassments  to  that  trade  is  founded  in  the  fact,  that  our  Government 
refuses  to  recognize  the  Government  of  Hayti.  We  stand  aloof,  as  if 
they  were  a  lawless  tribe  of  savages.  While  all  other  powers  have 
long  since  acknowledged  them  as  an  independent  sovereignty,  we 
refuse  to  recognize  them.  Others  profit  by  their  commerce  at  our 

*  By  the  census  of  1824,  the  population  was  stated  at  935,000.  It  is  un 
questionably  upwards  of  a  million  at  the  present  time. 


332  JAY'S  WORKS. 

expense.  We  have  no  representative  at  the  island  of  any  grade,  tfor 
have  they  a  public  officer  accredited  here.  No  commercial  relation, 
therefore,  exists  between  the  two  Governments."  Speech  of  Mr. 
Grennell  in  the  Home  of  Representatives,  December  18th,  1838. 

If  the  treatment  which  Hayti  has  received  from  the  United 
States,  evinces  the  hatred  of  our  republic  to  emancipation,  we 
have  a  proof  no  less  strong  of  its  attachment  to  slavery,  in 


THE    CONDUCT    OF   THE    FEDERAL    GOVERNMENT    TOWARDS 
TEXAS. 

In  1829,  the  Republic  of  Mexico  having  achieved  her  own 
independence,  gave  liberty  to  every  slave  within  her  limits. 
This  State  had  a  vast  and  fertile,  but  thinly  peopled  territory, 
adjacent  to  Louisiana.  In  this  territory,  within  a  few  .years 
past,  a  large  number  of  adventurers  from  the  United  States  had 
taken  up  their  residence,  with  the  consent,  and  under  the  juris 
diction  of  Mexico.  These  adventurers  sighed  for  the  sweets  of 
slavery,  which  they  had  enjoyed  in  their  native  land  ;  and  as  the 
soil  wras  adapted  to  the  cotton  cultivation,  they  became  restless 
under  the  requirement  of  the  Government,  either  to  till  it  them 
selves,  or  honestly  to  pay  those  who  tilled  it  for  them.  Hence  they 
conceived  the  idea  of  transferring  their  allegiance  from  Mexico 
to  another  republic  less  tenacious  of  human  rights.  Nor  was  a 
large  portion  of  that  other  republic  less  anxious  to  acquire  a 
new  market  for  slaves,  and  a  new  territory  which  would  give  to 
the  slave-holding  interest  a  preponderance  in  the  national  coun 
cils.  Judge  Upshur,  in  1829,  remarked  in  the  Virginia  Conven 
tion  :  "  If  Texas  should  be  obtained,  which  he  strongly  desired, 
it  would  raise  the  price  of  slaves,  and  be  a  great  advantage  to 
the  slave-holders  in  that  State."  Mr.  Doddridge,  another  mem 
ber,  said,  "  The  acquisition  of  Texas  will  greatly  enhance  the 
value  of  the  property  in  question."  Debates,  p.  89.  And  in 
1832,  Mr.  Gholston  declared  in  the  Virginia  Legislature,  that 
"  he  believed  the  acquisition  of  Texas  would  raise  the  price  of 
slaves  fifty  per  cent,  at  least."  Virginia,  it  will  be  recollected, 
is  a  breeding  State,  and  therefore  interested  in  the  opening  of  a 


ACTION  OP  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       333 

new  market.  The  planting  States  have  no  wish  to  raise  the 
price  of  slaves,  but  are  deeply  concerned  for  the  perpetuity  of 
the  system.  One  of  their  distinguished  politicians  published  a 
series  of  essays  on  the  policy  of  annexing  Texas  to  the  United 
States :  a  territory  which,  he  contended,  was  large  enough  to 
be  divided  into  NINE  SLAVE  STATES,  which  would  coun 
terbalance  the  increasing  number  of  free  States  at  the  North. 

The  Federal  Government,  ever  ready  to  promote  the  slave- 
holding  interest,  commenced  a  negotiation  for  the  purchase  of 
Texas,  and  offered  four  millions  of  dollars  for  the  territory.* 
The  offer  was  promptly  rejected,  and  other  means  were  re 
sorted  to. 

Texan  land  companies  were  formed  at  the  North,  for  the  sale 
of  extensive  tracts  of  land,  said  to  have  been  obtained  by  grants 
from  the  Mexican  Government.  Capitalists,  politicians,  and 
demagogues  participated  in  these  splendid  schemes  of  specula 
tion,  and  became  vociferous  in  the  cause  of  Texan  liberty.  At 
the  same  time,  crowds  of  emigrants  repaired  to  the  territory, 
many  carrying  their  slaves  with  them.  At  last,  these  men,  feel 
ing  themselves  strong  enough,  raised  the  standard  of  rebellion 
in  September,  1835,  and  on  the  2d  of  the  succeeding  March, 
issued  their  declaration  of  independence.  The  Mexicans,  of 
course,  endeavored  to  quell  the  insurrection ;  but,  although  nom 
inally  fighting  with  their  own  subjects,  they  were  in  fact  con 
tending  against  an  invasion  from  the  United  States.  The  truth 
of  this  assertion  will  scarcely  be  questioned  :  yet  it  may  be  well 
to  support  it  by  a  few  facts.  The  following  extracts  from  the 
journals  of  the  day,  will,  it  is  presumed,  be  sufficient : 

"  Who  will  go  to  Texas?  —  Major  J.  W.  Harvey  of  Lincolnton  has 
been  authorized  by  me,  with  the  consent  of  Major-General  Hunt,  an 
agent  in  the  western  counties  of  North  Carolina,  to  receive  and  enroll 
volunteer  emigrants  to  Texas ;  and  will  conduct  such  as  may  wish  to 
emigrate  to  that  Republic,  about  the  1st  of  October  next,  at  the  ex 
pense  of  the  Republic  of  Texas. 

J.  P.  HENDERSON, 
Brig.  Gen.  of  the  Texan  Army." 
North  Carolina  Paper. 

*  See  instructions  from  Mr.  Van  Buren,  Secretary  of  State,  to  Mr.  Poin- 
sett,  Minister  to  Mexico,  August  25,  1829. 

29 


334  JAY'S  WORKS. 

'-'•Three  Hundred  Men  for  Texas.  —  General  Dunlap  of  Tennessee  is 
about  to  proceed  to  Texas,  with  the  above  number  of  men.  The 
whole  corps  are  now  at  Memphis.  Every  man  is  completely  armed, 
the  corps  having  been  originally  raised  for  the  Florida  war.  This 
force,  we  have  no  doubt,  will  be  able  to  carry  every  thing  before  it." 
Vicksburg  (Miss.)  Register. 

"  Since  early  last  winter,  a  series  of  transactions  has  passed  before 
us  in  open  day,  the  undisguised  object  of  which  has  been  to  enlist 
troops,  and  procure  arms  to  aid  the  Texans  in  their  war  with  Mexico. 
Troops  have  been  enlisted — arms  have  been  obtained.  Their  military 
parades  have  been  exhibited  in  our  streets  —  they  have  embarked  at 
our  wharf —  have  proceeded  to  Texas  —  united  themselves  with  her 
troops,  and  joined  with  them  in  war  against  Mexico.  Is  it  not  a  fact 
that  every  stand  of  public  arms  deposited  at  this  place  by  the  State, 
has  been  sent  to  Texas,  with  the  connivance  of  those  who  had  charge 
of  them  ?  "  Cincinnati  Gazette. 

Meetings  were  held  in  various  places,  and  speeches  made,  and 
resolutions  passed  in  favor  of  the  Texan  patriots. 

At  a  meeting  in  Cincinnati,  of  the  friends  of  Texas,  it  -was 
resolved : 

"  That  no  law,  either  human  or  divine,  except  such  as  are  formed 
by  tyrants  for  their  sole  benefit,  forbids  our  assisting  the  Texans  ;  and 
such  law,  if  any  exists,  we  do  not  as  Americans  choose  to  obey." 

The  Federal  Government,  far  from  taking  any  efficient  meas 
ures  to  arrest  this  invasion  of  a  friendly  and  neighboring  State, 
sent  an  imposing  force  under  Gen.  Gaines,  into  the  Mexican  ter 
ritory,  under  the  pretence  of  protecting  the  frontiers  !  —  with 
what  result  is  shown  by  the  following  article. 

"  About  the  middle  of  last  month,  Gen.  Gaines  sent  an  officer  of  the 
United  States  army  into  Texas,  to  reclaim  some  deserters.  He  found 
them  already  enlisted  in  the  Texan  service  to  the  number  of  two  hun 
dred.  They  still  wore  the  uniform  of  our  army,  but  refused  of  course 
to  return.  The  commander  of  the  Texan  army  was  applied  to,  to  en 
force  their  return,  but  his  only  reply  was,  that  the  soldiers  might  go, 
but  that  he  had  no  authority  to  send  them  back.  This  is  a  new  view 
of  our  Texan  relations."  Pensacola  Gazette. 

The  adventurers  in  Texas  had  no  sooner  set  up  for  them 
selves,  than  they  adopted  a  constitution,  in  which  they  aimed, 
first,  to  secure  to  themselves  and  their  children  for  ever,  the 
blessings  of  slavery ;  and  secondly,  to  acquire  the  aid  and  pro 
tection  of  the  United  States.  The  first  object  was  to  be  attained 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       335 

by  a  constitutional  prohibition  of  both  private  and  legislative 
emancipation ;  and  by  making  it  a  fundamental  law  of  the  Re 
public,  that  no  free  black  or  mulatto  person  should  reside  within 
its  boundaries  ;  and  the  second  object,  by  giving  to  the  United 
States  in  perpetuity,  a  monopoly  of  the  slave-market  in  Texas, 
—  the  importation  of  slaves  from  any  other  country  being  abso 
lutely  prohibited,  thus  promising  to  realize  the  golden  visions  of 
the  Virginia  breeders.* 

A  feverish  impatience  now  pervaded  the  southern  States  for 
the  acknowledgment  of  Texan  independence  ;  —  an  impatience 
in  which  the  northern  speculators  fully  participated.  Acknowl 
edgment,  it  was  seen,  must  precede  annexation,  since  the  latter 
could  only  be  effected  by  a  treaty  with  Texas  as  an  independent 
power.  Still  policy  required  that  this  measure  should  be  cau 
tiously  managed,  lest  the  North  should  become  alarmed  at  this 
scheme  for  vesting  the  whole  political  power  of  the  Union  in 
the  hands  of  the  slave-holders,  and  the  northern  members  of 
Congress  be  found  for  once  refractory. 

Congress  met  in  December,  1836,  and  on  the  22d  of  the  same 
month,  President  Jackson  sent  them  a  special  message  in  rela 
tion  to  Texas.  He  remarked : 

"Prudence  seems  to  dictate  that  we  should  still  stand  aloof,  and 
maintain  our  present  attitude,  if  not  till  Mexico,  or  one  of  the  great 
foreign  powers  shall  recognize  the  independence  of  the  new  Goverr> 
ment,  at  least  until  the  lapse  of  time,  or  the  course  of  events  shall  have 
proved  beyond  all  cavil  or  dispute  the  ability  of  that  country  to  maintain 
their  separate  sovereignty,  and  to  uphold  the  Government  constituted  by 
them." 

*  To  aid  the  deception  intended  to  be  practised  on  these  breeders,  the 
President  of  Texas  issued  his  proclamation  April  3,  1836,  declaring  that 
"  Whereas  the  African  slave-trade  is  equally  revolting  to  the  best  feelings  of 
our  nature  and  to  the  benign  principles  of  the  Christian  religion  ;  is  destruc 
tive  to  national  morals  and  to  individual  humanity  :  "  therefore,  all  officers 
were  commanded  to  be  vigilant  in  suppressing  the  African  slave-trade.  This 
precious  piece  of  hypocrisy  was  worthy  of  the  new  Republic.  On  the  1st  of 
January,  1836,  the.  British  Commissioners  at  Havana  informed  their  Gov 
ernment,  ."  within  the  last  six  weeks,  considerable  sums  of  money  have  been 
deposited  by  American  citizens  in  certain  mercantile  houses,  for  the  purpose 
of  making  additional  purchases  of  negroes  for  Texas."  Buxton,  in  his  late 
work,  says,  "  I  have  been  informed  on  high  authority  that  within  the  last 
twelve  months,  (1837-8,)  15,000  negroes  were  imported  from  Africa  into  Tex 
as,"  p.  25.  The  sugar  planters  of  Louisiana,  as  we  have  seen,  are  complain 
ing  that  while  they  are  compelled  to  import  slaves  from  Virginia  at  $1000  a 
head,  the  Texan  planters  are  importing  them  direct  from  Africa  at  half 
price. 


336  JAY'S  WORKS. 

This  message  dissipated  all  apprehensions  on  the  part  of  the 
friends  of  freedom,  of  a  speedy  acknowledgment,  and  relieved 
Congress  from  the  remonstrances  and  petitions  with  which  their 
tables  would  otherwise  have  been  loaded. 

It  was  obvious,  however,  that  if  we  could  contrive  to  become 
embroiled  in  a  war  with  Mexico,  we  might  then  seize  upon 
Texas,  and  hold  it  by  right  of  conquest,  without  any  violation 
of  our  neutral  obligations :  and  that  by  this  process,  the  annex 
ation  might  be  effected  with  even  more  facility  than  by  a  com 
pact  with  Texas  as  an  independent  power.  Accordingly,  about 
two  weeks  after  the  late  message,  the  President  sent  another  to 
Congress  on  our  grievances  against  Mexico  —  grievances  about 
which  the  people  at  large  knew  and  cared  nothing.  This  mes 
sage  recommended  the  passage  of  a  law  authorizing  the  Presi 
dent  to  employ  a  naval  force  against  Mexico  if  she  refused  "  to 
come  to  an  amicable  adjustment  of  the  matters  in  controversy 
between  us,  upon  another  demand  thereof,  made  from  on  board 
one  of  our  vessels  of  war  on  the  coast  of  Mexico"  This  propo 
sition  was  coldly  received,  neither  Congress  nor  the  nation 
seeming  to  approve  of  such  a  novel  and  summary  way  of  declar 
ing  war ;  and  no  one  having  the  slightest  desire  for  war,  except 
those  who  were  anxious  for  the  annexation.  It  being  found 
that  a  war  could  not  be  had,  another  game  was  played.  The 
session  was  to  close  on  the  3d  of  March.  The  strongest  oppo 
sition  to  Texas  was  to  be  apprehended  in  the  Lower  House. 
Four  days  before  the  termination  of  the  session,  a  motion  was 
there  made  to  add  a  clause  to  the  appropriation  bill,  making 
provision  for  the  salary  of  a  diplomatic  agent  to  Texas.  There 
was  no  time  for  long  speeches,  and  the  motion  was  adopted  with 
the  amendment  "  to  be  sent  by  the  President  whenever  he  shall 
receive  satisfactory  evidence  that  Texas  is  an  independent  power, 
and  shall  see  lit  to  open  a  diplomatic  intercourse  with  her." 
The  late  message  proved  that  the  President  had  not  yet  received 
"  the  satisfactory  evidence,"  and  anticipated  it  only  from  the 
action  of  the  great  foreign  powers,  or  "  the  lapse  of  time."  Little 
hesitation,  therefore,  was  felt  in  leaving  the  subject  under  the 
control  of  the  Executive.  The  House  of  Representatives,  in 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       337 

which  there  was  a  majority  of  northern  members,  having  been 
thus  managed,  and  a  salary  secured  for  a  Minister  to  Texas, 
the  veil  was  thrown  aside  in  the  Senate,  and  two  days  before 
the  end  of  the  session,  it  was 

"  Resolved,  That  the  State  of  Texas  having  established  and  main 
tained  an  independent  government,  capable  of  performing  those  duties, 
foreign  and  domestic,  which  appertain  to  independent  governments, 
and  it  appearing  that  there  is  no  longer  any  reasonable  prospect  of  the 
successful  termination  of  the  war  by  Mexico  against  said  State,  it  is 
expedient  and  proper,  and  in  conformity  with  the  laws  of  nations  and 
the  precedents  of  this  Government  in  like  cases,  that  the  independent 
political  existence  of  said  State  be  acknowledged  by  the  Government 
of  the  United  States." 

As  the  whole  tenor  of  this  resolution  was  in  direct  opposition 
to  the  message  of  the  22d  of  December,  and  as  nothing  had 
occurred  since  that  date  to  weaken  the  positions  assumed  in  the 
message,  one  of  the  senators  in  opposing  the  resolution,  very 
naturally  alluded  to  the  views  entertained  by  the  President.  On 
this,  Mr.  Walker,  a  senator  from  Mississippi,  rose  in  his  place 
and  declared,  that  "  he  had  it  from,  the  President's  own  lips,  that 
if  he  ivere  a  senator,  he  would  vote  for  this  resolution  !  !  " 

At  eleven  o'clock  of  the  night  of  the  3d  of  March,  an  hour 
before  his  term  of  office  expired,  and  just  as  the  Senate  was 
about  adjourning,  the  President  sent  them  the  nomination  of  a 
Minister  to  Texas  ! ! 

The  conduct  of  the  Federal  Government  towards  Texas  and 
Hayti,  places  in  a  strong  light  the  influence  of  slavery  on  our 
national  councils.  The  latter  State  has  been  independent  both 
in  name  and  in  fact  for  thirty-seven  years,  yet  we  still  refuse  to 
recognize  her.  Twelve  months  after  Texas  declared  her  inde 
pendence,  she  was  received  by  us  into  the  family  of  nations,  and 
honored  by  an  interchange  of  diplomatic  agents.  For  thirty-five 
years,  the  soil  of  Hayti  has  not  been  trodden  by  an  invader ; 
only  ten  months  before  the  acknowledgment  of  Texas,  a  Mexican 
army  was  carrying  terror  and  destruction  through  its  territory. 
That  army  had  indeed  been  defeated,  but  another  was  preparing 
to  renew  the  contest.  Hayti  had  long  been  at  peace  with  all 
the  world.  Mexico  claimed  Texas  as  its  own,  and  solemnly 
29* 


338 

avowed  its  determination  to  chastise  and  suppress  the  revolt. 
Hayti  achieved  her  independence  after  a  long  and  arduous  strug 
gle  with  powerful  armies,  and  has  a  population  of  a  million  to 
maintain  it.  Texas,  when  acknowledged,  could  appeal  only  to 
the  fortunate  result  of  a  single  battle  as  evidence  of  her  national 
power,  while  she  had  no  more  than  60,000  inhabitants  to  con 
tend  against  the  eight  millions  of  Mexico.  "With  Hayti,  we  had 
a  large  and  valuable  commerce,  while  our  commerce  with  Texas 
was  only  in  expectancy.  Yet  has  slavery  estranged  our  Gov 
ernment  from  the  one  nation,  and  led  it  to  welcome  to  its  em 
brace  another,  incomparably  inferior  in  political  strength  and 
moral  worth. 

The  indecent  haste  with  which  Texas  was  acknowledged,  and 
the  trickery  by  which  the  acknowledgment  was  effected,  were 
prompted  by  the  desire  of  annexation.  A  southern  journal 
speaks  thus  frankly  on  the  subject : 

"  Docs  any  sober  observer  contend  —  can  he  in  the  face  of  facts, — 
that  Texas  has  substantially,  according  to  the  usages  of  nations,  accom 
plished  her  independence  V  Was  there  not  an  even  chance,  to  put 
the  matter  on  the  most  favorable  footing,  that  the  victory  of  Jacinto 
might  this  campaign  be  reversed  ?  But  natural  feeling  has  outstripped 
the  prudence  of  our  Government,  usually  discreet  and  judicious,  and 
social  symjiathy  has  done  what  political  precedent,  and  possibly  expe 
diency,  might  not  have  sanctioned.  The  debate  in  the  British  Parlia 
ment  shows  how  •well  State  papers  and  official  ceremonies  "  (viz.,  the 
President's  Message,)  "  may  delude,  or  seem  to  delude  foreign  govern 
ments.  While  Lord  Palmerston  and  O'Connell  were  defending  our 
Government  from  any  improper  haste  in  acknowledging  the  indepen 
dence  of  Texas,  the  deed  is  consummated."  The  Port  Gibson  (.Miss.) 
Southerner. 

The  whole  slave  region,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  demanded 
a  union  with  the  new  State.  "The  very  reasons,"  said  the 
Charleston  Mercury,  "so  intemperately  urged  by  the  North 
against  it,  that  it  will  increase  the  political  weight  of  the  south 
ern  States,  and  perpetuate  and  extend  the  curse  of  slavery,  are 
our  best  reasons  for  it" 

The  Legislatures  of  South  Carolina,  Mississippi,  and  Ten- 
-nessee,  all  passed  resolutions  in  favor  of  the  annexation.  Many 
individuals  at  the  North  had  likewise  a  deep  pecuniary  interest 
in  the  question.  They  had  speculated  largely  in  Texas  lands, 


ACTION  OP  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       339 

but  their  titles  would  be  of  but  little  value,  so  long  as  they 
depended  on  the  faith  of  the  lawless  adventurers  who  possessed 
the  country.  Could  that  country  be  received  into  the  Union, 
and  subjected  to  the  acts  of  Congress  and  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  their  purchases  might  ensure  to  themselves  or 
their  families,  princely  estates.  A  writer  in  the  Salem  Gazette, 
(Mass.)  probably  a  speculator,  in  vindicating  the  annexation, 
thus  appealed  to  the  avarice  of  New  England : 

"  It  is  calculated  that  the  value  of  one  kind  of  property  in  the  South, 
slaves,  will  be  enhanced  so  much,  that  that  portion  of  our  country  will 
realize  one  or  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  ;  and  the  South  cannot 
be  enriched  without  benefiting  the  North  —  the  money  will  naturally 
come  here  at  last." 

The  people  of  Texas  were  no  less  desirous  of  annexation 
than  southern  slave-holders,  or  northern  speculators.  The  plan 
of  union  was  avowed  from  almost  the  very  commencement  of 
the  rebellion.  In  August,  1836,  S.  F.  Austin,  in  an  address 
offering  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  told  the 
people  : — "  I  am  in  favor  of  the  annexation,  and  will  do  all  in 
my  power  to  effect  it  with  the  least  possible  delay."  W.  H. 
Jack,  a  candidate  for  the  Legislature,  declared :  "  I  am  decidedly 
and  unequivocally  in  favor  of  annexing  Texas  to  the  United 
States."  Gen.  Houston,  the  Commander-in-chief,  intimated  that 
"the  annexation  was  essential  to  the  interests  of  the  new 
country."  The  Texan  Congress  resolved,  "  that  the  President 
of  the  Republic  of  Texas  be  empowered  and  authorized  to 
despatch  a  commissioner  or  commissioners  to  the  United  States 
of  America,  to  obtain  a  negotiation  of  our  independence,  and 
enter  into  a  treaty  with  that  Government  for  a  union  on  a  foot 
ing  with  the  original  States."  The  first  condition  prescribed  for 
this  proposed  union,  was,  "THE  FREE  AND  UNMOLESTED 

AUTHORITY  OVER  THEIR  SLAVE  POPULATION  ! " 

On  the  4th  of  August,  1837,  the  negotiation  was  opened  by 
the  Texan  Minister  at  Washington,  by  a  proposition  "  to  unite 
the  two  people  under  one  and  the  same  government."  The 
acceptance  of  this  proposition  would  of  course  have  been  equiva 
lent  to  a  declaration  of  war  against  Mexico ;  a  responsibility 


340  JAY'S  WORKS. 

which  Mr.  Van  Buren  did  not  see  fit  to  assume,  especially  in 
the  recess  of  Congress.  He  declined  entering  into  the  negotia 
tion,  on  the  grounds  that  the  United  States  were  at  present  at 
peace  with  Mexico,  and  that  that  power  had  not  acknowledged 
the  independence  of  Texas.  As  this  answer  merely  postponed 
the  annexation  on  account  of  an  obstacle  easily  removed,  it  was 
entirely  satisfactory  to  the  South;  and  the  more  so  as  the 
President's  message  to  Congress  on  the  4th  of  the  ensuing 
December  wore  a  very  belligerent  aspect  towards  Mexico. 

This  formal  attempt  at  annexation  roused  the  fears  of  the 
North,  and  innumerable  remonstrances  against  the  measure 
were  presented  to  Congress.  In  the  meantime  Mexico,  by  pro 
posing  a  submission  of  her  differences  with  the  United  States  to 
arbitration,  removed  all  pretence  for  immediate  war.  Under 
these  circumstances,  the  southern  delegation  in  Congress  thought 
it  most  prudent  not  to  press  the  annexation.  The  Texans, 
moreover,  finding  themselves  unmolested  by  Mexico,  wrho  had 
become  involved  in  war  with  France,  and  observing  the  strong 
hostility  manifested  towards  the  measure  in  the  United  States, 
formally  withdrew  her  application  for  admission  into  the  Union. 
It  is  folly,  however,  to  suppose  that  the  project  of  annexation 
is  abandoned,  either  by  the  South  or  by  Texas  ;  nor  does  it 
need  the  gift  of  prophecy  to  foresee  that  the  first  favorable 
opportunity  of  making  war  upon  Mexico,  will  be  readily  em 
braced  by  the  Federal  Government.  Should  such  a  war  be 
effected,  the  dominion  of  the  WHIP  may  perhaps  be  extended 
from  Maryland  to  Panama. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  here  to  compare  the  conduct  of  the 
Federal  Government  towards  the  Texan  and  the  Canadian 
rebels.  The  first  were  slave-holders  reestablishing  slavery  on  a 
soil  from  which  it  had  been  banished  ;  and  they  enjoyed  from 
the  first  the  sympathy  of  our  government,  who  took  care  to 
interpose  no  real  obstacle  to  an  invasion  on  their  behalf  from 
the  United  States  :  while  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  them  it 
labored  to  excite  an  immediate  war  with  Mexico.  The  Canadian 
rebels  were  professedly  fighting  for  liberty,  and  should  they 
succeed,  there  was  no  probability  that  negro  slavery  would 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       341 

crown  their  triumph.  They,  like  the  Texans,  looked  to  us  for 
aid ;  but  the  President,  now  alive  to  the  obligations  of  neu 
trality,  and  finding  the  existing  laws  insufficient  to  enforce  them, 
applied  to  Congress,  and  received  additional  powers.  Troops 
were  sent  to  the  frontiers,  not  to  swell  by  desertion  the  ranks  of 
the  rebels,  but  in  good  faith,  forcibly  to  prevent  American 
citizens  from  aiding  the  revolt.  No  attempt  was  ever  made  to 
punish  any  of  the  abettors  of  the  Texan  rebels ;  but  the 
judicial  as  well  as  the  military  power  of  the  Government  was 
exerted  to  enforce  the  duties  of  neutrality  on  the  Canadian 
frontier;  and  indictments  and  trials  and  imprisonments  have 
taught  the  impressive  lesson,  that  American  citizens  may  not 
with  impunity  make  war  upon  a  friendly  nation,  except  for  the 
purpose  of  trampling  upon  the  rights  of  man. 

"  While  Mackenzie  and  Case  are  lying  in  a  solitary  dungeon,  for 
attempting  to  liberate  Canada,  the  Texan  agent  is  openly  enlisting 
men  at  Buffalo,  to  serve  in  an  expedition  against  Mexico."  Lewislon 
Telegraph. 

But  hear  the  confession  of  the  official  journal  of  the  adminis 
tration  : 

"  There  is  no  doubt,  we  believe,  that  vessels  of  war  of  light  draught  of 
water — brigs  and  schooners — are  preparing  in  the  United  States,  for 
Texas,  to  be  commanded  by  young  officers  of  the  American  Navy " 
Washington  Globe. 

Yet  not  a  finger  has  been  raised  to  prevent  these  hostile  and 
illegal  armaments.  The  truth  is,  a  war  with  Mexico  is  ardently 
desired  by  the  slave-holders,  and  the  President  was  for  nego 
tiating  on  l)oard  an  armed  vessel.  A  war  with  Great  Britain, 
emphatically  an  anti-slavery  nation,  is  now  viewed  with  horror 
and  dismay  by  the  whole  South,*  and  the  Executive  has  sedu 
lously  endeavored  to  avoid  it. 

We  have  now  presented  numerous  instances  of  the  action  of 
the  Federal  Government  in  behalf  of  slavery ;  but  our  task  is 
not  completed.  We  are  still  to  view  that  Government,  which, 

*  A  distinguished  southern  senator,  speaking  of  the  importance  of  preserv 
ing  our  neutrality  on  the  Canada  frontier,  declared  that  in  his  opinion  "  a 
war  with  England  would  be  the  heaviest  calamity  that  could  befall  the 
country." 


342  JAY'S  WORKS. 

in  the  language  of  the  Constitution,  was  established  "  to  secure 
the  blessings  of  LIBERTY  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity, "  assail 
ing  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  citizen,  in  order  to  rivet  the 
fetters  of  the  slave ;  striving  to  extinguish  the  freedom  of  the 
press,  the  freedom  of  debate,  and  the  right  of  petition,  to  per 
petuate  property  in  human  flesh.  These,  we  are  sensible,  are 
strong  assertions :  we  solicit  attention  to  the  facts  on  which  they 
are  founded,  and  first  to 


THE  ATTEMPT  OF  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT  TO  ESTABLISH  A 
CENSORSHIP  OF  THE  PRESS. 

In  the  summer  of  1835,  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  New 
York,  directed  their  publisher  to  forward  a  number  of  their 
periodical  papers,  containing  facts  and  disquisitions  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  to  various  southern  gentlemen  of  distinction, 
in  the  hope  of  exciting  by  this  means,  a  spirit  of  inquiry  among 
persons  of  influence  and  character.  But  it  was  precisely  such  a 
spirit  of  inquiry,  that  the  advocates  of  perpetual  bondage  feared 
might  be  fatal  to  their  favorite  institution.  Hence  they  affected 
to  believe  that  the  papers  sent  to  the  masters,  were  intended  to 
excite  the  slaves  to'  insurrection,  and  they  succeeded  in  madden 
ing  the  populace  to  fury.  A  mob  broke  into  the  Charleston 
Post  Office,  and  seizing  a  quantity  of  anti-slavery  papers,  burned 
them  in  the  street.  This  outrage  was  virtually  approved  by 
the  City  Council ;  and  at  a  public  meeting,  a  committee  of 
"  gentlemen"  was  appointed  to  take  charge  of  the  northern 
mail  on  its  arrival,  accompany  it  to  the  Post  Office,  and  see  that 
no  papers  advocating  the  rights  of  man  should  be  delivered  to 
their  owners.  The  Postmaster  informed  the  head  of  the  de 
partment,  that  under  existing  circumstances,  he  had  determined 
to  suppress  all  anti-slavery  publications,  and  asked  for  instruc 
tions  for  the  future.  It  should  here  be  recollected,  that  of  all  the 
political  advisers  of  the  President,  Mr  Kendall,  at  this  time 
acting  as  Postmaster- General,  was  the  most  odious  to  the  oppo 
site  party.  He  had  been  appointed  during  the  recess  of  the 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       343 

Senate,  and  it  was  regarded  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  on  the 
meeting  of  that  body,  in  which  the  opposition  had  a  majority,- 
his  nomination  would  be  rejected.  The  Constitution  forbade  a 
censorship  of  the  press,  and  had  the  people  been  disposed  to 
delegate  so  formidable  a  power,  they  certainly  would  not  have 
vested  it  in  the  10,000  deputies  of  the  Postmaster- General. 
The  law  moreover  expressly  required  every  postmaster  to 
deliver  the  papers  received  by  him  to  the  persons  to  whom 
they  were  directed. 

Such  were  the  circumstances  under  which  Mr.  Kendall 
returned  his  famous  answer.  After  stating  that  not  having  seen 
the  papers  in  question,  he  could  not  judge  of  their  character,  but 
had  been  informed  that  they  were  incendiary,  inflammatory  and 
insurrectionary,  he  added : 

"By  no  act  or  direction  of  mine,  official  or  private,  could  I  be  in 
duced  to  aid  knowingly  in  giving  circulation  to  papers  of  this  description, 
directly  or  indirectly.  We  owe  an  obligation  to  the  laws,  but  a  higher 
one  to  the  communities  in  which  we  live ;  and  if  the  former  be  per 
verted  to  destroy  the  latter,  it  is  patriotism  to  disregard  them.  Enter 
taining  these  views,  I  cannot  sanction  and  will  not  condemn  the  step 
you  have  taken." 

This  letter  taught  the  Senate  that  the  new  officer  was  willing 
to  conduct  the  Post  Office  in  a  manner  calculated  to  protect  the 
"domestic  institution"  from  the  assaults  of  truth  and  argu 
ment,  and  his  nomination  was  confirmed.  '  Mr.  Kendall  was  at 
the  date  of  his  letter,  a  member  of  the  Cabinet,  and  it  was 
understood  that  the  novel,  extraordinary,  and  dangerous  doc 
trine  of  that  letter  received  the  sanction  of  the  President. 

On  the  opening  of  Congress,  President  Jackson  in  his  message 
recommended  the  "  passing  of  such  a  law  as  will  prohibit  under 
severe  penalties,  the  circulation  in  the  southern  States  through 
the  mails,  of  incendiary  publications  intended  to  instigate  the 
slaves  to  insurrection."  The  proposed  law,  it  seems,  was  not  to 
prohibit  the  printing  of  certain  papers,  nor  their  committal  to  the 
mails  in  the  northern  States,  but  only  their  circulation  in  the 
slave-region.  Of  course  certain  persons,  —  postmasters,  we 
presume,  —  were  to  be  required,  under  "heavy  penalties,"  to 
stop  these  papers  ;  and  they  were  necessarily  to  be  judges  of 


344  JAY'S  WORKS. 

the  character  of  the  papers,  and  of  the  intentions  of  their  writers. 
From  what  code  of  despotism  did  our  very  democratic  President 
derive  his  plan  for  destroying  the  efficiency  of  the  PRESS  ?  By 
a  contemptible  quibble,  this  plan  was  to  evade  the  constitutional 
guaranty  of  the  freedom  of  the  press.  It  was  not  to  interfere 
with  the  press  —  not  at  all  —  it  was  merely  to  prevent  the  cir 
culation  of  its  productions !  The  press  was  still  to  be  free  to 
pour  forth  its  arguments  against  slavery,  only  "heavy  penal 
ties  "  were  to  prevent  the  people  from  reading  them !  The 
reason  moreover  assigned  for  this  proposed  high-handed  act  of 
tyranny,  was  a  most  malignant  and  wilful  calumny.  It  was  to 
prevent  the  circulation  in  the  southern  States  of  publications 
intended  to  excite  the  slaves  to  insurrection.  Such  a  proposal 
from  the  first  magistrate  of  the  country  to  Congress,  and  follow 
ing  the  affair  at  Charleston,  and  Mr.  Kendall's  letter,  irresis 
tibly  fixes  upon  the  members  of  the  Anti- Slavery  Society  at 
New  York,  the  charge  of  sending  papers  into  the  southern 
States  for  the  purpose  and  with  the  desire  of  effecting  the 
massacre  of  their  fellow-citizens.  If  the  President  really  be 
lieved  that  such  was  the  object  of  the  New  York  abolitionists, 
and  such  the  character  of  their  publications,  and  if  he  thought 
it  his  official  duty  to  bring  the  subject  before  Congress,  he  owed 
it  to  himself,  to  the  country,  to  truth  and  to  justice,  to  have  sub 
mitted  to  Congress  the  facts  and  documents  on  which  he  founded 
his  proposed  invasion  of  the,  constitutional  rights  of  his  fellow- 
citizens.  But  he  cautiously  avoided  specifying  a  single  fact,  or 
quoting  a  single  sentence  in  support  of  his  tremendous  accusation, 
or  in  justification  of  his  most  unwarrantable  proposition ;  and 
when  written  to  by  the  acting  committee  of  the  New  York 
Society  for  proof  of  his  charge  against  them,  he  deemed  it  most 
prudent  not  to  return  an  answer !  Surely  the  burden  of  proof 
rests  upon  him  who,  in  a  solemn  official  address  to  the  Legisla 
ture,  holds  up  a  portion  of  his  fellow-citizens  as  miscreants 
engaged  in  plotting  murder  and  insurrection,  and  urges  the 
enaction  of  a  law  to  counteract  their  execrable  machinations. 

It  is  often  difficult  to  prove  a  negative ;  but  in  this  instance, 
the  falsehood  of  the  President's  charge  is  amply  demonstrated 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       345 

by  an  official  document  from  the  slave-holders  themselves.  We 
give  this  document,  not  to  exculpate  the  members  of  the  New 
York  Society  from  a  calumny  which  their  own  characters  abun 
dantly  refute,  but  to  show  in  a  strong  light  the  unprincipled 
means  to  which  the  Federal  Government  is  capable  of  resorting 
to  uphold  the  "  peculiar  institution  "  of  the  South. 

A  grand  jury  in  Alabama  conceived  the  bright  idea,  that  the 
publication  of  tracts  at  the  North  against  slavery  might  be 
arrested  by  indicting  the  publishers  as  felons,  and  then  demand 
ing  them  from  the  Governors  of  their  respective  States  as 
fugitives  from  southern  justice.  It  was  necessary,  however,  to 
specify  in  the  indictment,  the  precise  crime  of  which  they  had 
been  guilty;  a  necessity  which  the  President  regarded  as  not 
applicable  to  his  message.  We  may  well  suppose,  therefore, 
that  the  grand  jury  would  endeavor  to  secure  the  success  of  this, 
their  first  experiment,  by  selecting  from  the  various  publications 
alluded  to  by  the  President  and  Mr.  Kendall,  as  sent  to  the 
South  for  the  purpose  of  exciting  insurrection,  the  most  insur 
rectionary,  cut-throat  passages,  they  could  find.  Behold  the 
result. 

"  State  of  Alabama,    7  n-      v  n  d  \      m 

Tuscaloosa  count;.  j  Circmt  Court'  ScPtember  Term>  1835- 

The  grand  jurors,  *  *  *  *  upon  their  oath  present,  that 
Kobert  G.  Williams,  late  of  said  county^  being  a  wicked,  malicious, 
seditious,  and  ill-disposed  person,  and  being  greatly  disaffected  to  the 
laws  and  government  of  said  State,  and  feloniously,  wickedly,  mali 
ciously,  and  seditiously  contriving,  devising,  and  intending  to  produce 
conspiracy,  insurrection  and  rebellion  among  the  slave  population  of 
said  State,  and  to  alienate  and  withdraw  the  affection,  fidelity,  and 
allegiance  of  said  slaves  from  their  masters  and  owners,  on  the  tenth 
day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  thirty-five,  at  the  county  aforesaid,  feloniously,  wickedly,  mali 
ciously,  and  seditiously  did  cause  to  be  distributed,  circulated  and  pub 
lished,  a  seditious  paper,  called  '  THE  EMANCIPATOR,'  in  which  paper 
is  published  according  to  the  tenor  and  effect  following,  that  is  to  say : 
'God  commands,  and  all  nature  cries  out,  that  MAN  should  not  be  held 
as  property.  The  system  of  making  MEN  property,  has  plunged  2,250,000 
of  our  fellow-countrymen  into  the  deepest  physical  and  moral  degrada 
tion,  and  they  are  every  moment  sinking  deeper.'  In  open  violation  of 
the  Act  of  the  General  Assembly  in  such  case  made  and  provided,  to 


346  JAY'S  WORKS. 

the  evil  and  pernicious  example  of  all  others  in  like  case  offending,  and 
against  the  peace  and  dignity  of  the  State  of  Alabama."  * 

In  the  Senate,  the  recommendation  of  the  President  was 
referred  to  a  committee,  who  reported  a  bill  prohibiting  post 
masters  from  delivering  "  any  pamphlet,  newspaper,  handbill,  or 
other  printed  paper,  or  pictorial  representation,  touching  the  sub 
ject  of  slavery,  in  any  State  in  which  their  circulation  is  prohib 
ited  by  law."  The  object  of  this  bill  was,  by  means  of  federal 
legislation,  to  build  around  the  slave  States  a  rampart  against 
the  assaults  of  light  and  truth.  Its  absurdity  was  equalled  only 
by  its  wickedness.  Not  a  newspaper  containing  a  debate  in 
Congress,  a  report  from  a  committee,  a  message  from  the  Presi 
dent,  a  letter  from  the  West  Indies,  "  touching  the  subject  of 
slavery,"  could  be  legally  delivered  from  a  southern  post  office  ; 
and  thousands  of  postmasters  were  to  be  employed  in  opening 
envelopes  and  poring  over  their  contents,  to  catch  a  reference 
to  the  "  domestic  institution." 

By  this  bill,  the  Federal  Government  virtually  surrendered 
to  the  States,  the  freedom  of  the  press,  and  nullified  the  guaranty 
of  this  inestimable  privilege,  given  by  our  fathers  in  the  Consti 
tution  to  every  citizen.  This  bill,  moreover,  prepared  the  way  for 
the  destruction  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  If  every  paper 
touching  the  subject  of  slavery  might  be  suppressed,  then  the 
same  fate  might  just  as  constitutionally  be  awarded  to  every  pa 
per  touching  the  conduct  of  the  administration,  or  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity.  It  established  a  censorship  of  the  press  on  one 
subject,  which  might  afterwards  be  extended  to  others.  Yet 
this  bill,  absurd  and  unconstitutional  as  it  was,  went  through  its 
regular  stages  with  little  opposition,  till  the  important  question 
was  taken  on  its  engrossment;  —  the  vote  stood  eighteen  to 
eighteen.  The  casting  vote  was  now  required  from  Mr.  Van 
Buren,  who,  as  Vice  President,  occupied  the  chair.  He  gave  it 
for  the  slave-holders,  and  received  from  them,  at  the  ensuing 

*  Another  count  was  added  for  distributing  "  The  Emancipator,"  but  with 
out  giving  any  extracts.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add,  that  Williams  had 
never  been  in  Alabama.  Yet  on  this  indictment,  he  was  demanded  of  the 
New  York  Executive  as  a  fugitive  felon,  by  the  Governor  of  Alabama. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       347 

election,  sixty-one  electoral  votes,  by  means  of  which  he  became 
President  of  the  United  States.*  On  the  final  question,  the  bill 
was  rejected,  and  this  attempt  to  trammel  the  press  for  the  pro 
tection  of  slavery,  defeated.  A  very  different  result,  however, 
has  attended 

THE  EFFORT  OF  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT  TO  NULLIFY  THE 
RIGHT  OF  PETITION  AND  THE  FREEDOM  OF  DEBATE. 

For  thirty  years  past,  petitions  have  been  presented  to  Con 
gress  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Cohlmbia, 
and  the  national  territories ;  and,  until  latterly,  were  received 
and  treated  like  other  petitions.  But  having  within  a  few  years 
prodigiously  increased  in  number,  and  some  northern  members 
having  shown  a  disposition  to  advocate  their  prayer,  a  most  ex* 
traordinary  course  has  been  pursued  in  relation  to  them.  The 
reason  of  this  course  is  explained  by  the  following  passage  from 
a  speech  by  Mr.  Strange,  a  senator  from  North  Carolina. 

• 

"  Every  agitation  of  this  subject  (slavery,)  weakens  the  moral  force 
in  our  favor,  and  breaks  down  the  moral  barriers  which  now  serve  to 
protect  and  secure  us.  We  have  everything  to  lose  and  nothing  to  gain 
by  agitation  and  discussion." 

The  frankness  of  this  confession  is  as  remarkable  as  its  truth 
is  unquestionable  ;  and  it  shows  us  why  the  advocates  of  slavery, 
instead  of  meeting  their  opponents  in  argument,  have  sought  to 
silence  them  by  brute  force  and  penal  enactments. 

One  of  the  most  unequivocal  and  undoubted  of  all  constitu 
tional  rights  is  that  of  petition,  and  it  is,  moreover,  expressly 
guaranteed  by  the  Constitution.  But  this  right  has  been  most 
audaciously  nullified  by  both  branches  of  the  national  legisla- 
ture.  The  Senate  have  not,  it  is  true,  avowedly  refused  to 
receive  anti-slavery  petitions,  but  they  have  adopted  a  course 
which  answers  the  same  purpose.  The  practice  for  some  years 
past  has  been  to  lay  the  question  of  reception  on  the  table  with- 

*  The  two  senators  from  New  York,  Messrs.  Wright  and  Tallmadge,  polit 
ical  friends  of  Mr.  Van  Buren,  supported  the  bill.  It  is  due  to  justice  to 
mention  that  the  bill  was  finally  lost  by  the  votes  of  several  southern 
senators. 


348  JAY'S  WORKS. 

out  deciding  it,  and  the  question  not  being  in  fact  received,  can 
not  be  discussed,  nor  any  measure  respecting  it  taken.  This 
course  is  no  less  at  variance  with  the  constitutional  rights  of  the 
petitioners,  than  it  is  with  those  of  the  members  of  the  Senate. 
The  rights  of  petition  and  freedom  of  debate  are  both  nulli 
ties,  if  the  body  to  which  a  prayer  is  addressed,  is  prohibited 
from  listening  to  it,  and  the  individual  members  are  prohibited 
from  noticing  it.  Would  it  be  no  violation  of  the  Constitution 
were  the  Senate  to  order  that  every  petition,  "  touching  the  sub 
ject  of  slavery,"  should  be  delivered  to  their  doorkeeper,  to  be 
committed  by  him  to  the  flames  ?  And  yet  in  what  particular 
are  the  rights  of  the  petitioners  more  respected  by  the  practice 
we  have  mentioned  ?  The  petitions  are  not  indeed  burned,  but 
they  are  left  in  the  pockets  of  those  to  whom  they  were  entrusted ; 
and  not  being  received,  the  Senate  is  supposed  to  be  ignorant  of 
their  contents,  and  of  course  no  member  is  permitted  to  discuss 
their  merits,  or  to  propose  any  measure  founded  upon  them. 
Let  us  now  turn  to  what  is  regarded  as  the  popular  branch,  — 
the  House  of  Representatives,  —  intended  to  be  the  special 
guardian  of  the  liberties  of  the  PEOPLE,  as  the  Senate  is  of  the 
rights  of  the  States. 

In  May,  1836,  a  committee  reported  to  the  House  a  resolu 
tion,  prefaced  with  this  extraordinary  avowal : 

"  Whereas  it  is  extremely  important  and  desirable,  that  the  AGITA 
TION  on  this  subject  (slavery)  should  be  finally  arrested  for  the  purpose 
of  restoring  tranquillity  to  the  public  mind,  your  committee  respectfully 
recommend  the  following  resolution." 

Here  then  is  an  acknowledged,  unblushing  interference  by  the 
Federal  Government,  in  behalf  of  slavery ;  an  avowed  interfer 
ence  to  arrest  that  agitation,  which  we  are  assured  by  Mr. 
Strange,  "  breaks  down  the  moral  barriers"  which  serve  to  pro 
tect  and  secure  a  system  of  iniquitious  cruelty  and  oppression. 
To  arrest  this  agitation,  the  committee  did  not  scruple  to  recom 
mend  a  measure,  breaking  down  the  constitutional  barriers 
erected  to  protect  and  secure  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States.  The  resolution  reported  by  the  com- 


ACTION  OP  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       349 

ruittee,  was  adopted  by  the  House  on  the  26th  of  May,   1836, 
and  is  in  these  words : 

"Resolved,  That  all  petitions,  memorials,  and  propositions  relating  in 
any  way,  or  to  any  extent  whatever  to  the  subject  of  slavery,  shall  with 
out  being  either  printed  or  referred,  be  laid  on  the  table,  and  that  no 
farther  action  whatever  shall  be  had  thereon."  Ayes  117 — Nays  68. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  of  the  ayes,  no  less  than  sixty- 
two  were  from  the  free  States  !  The  advocates  of  this  resolution, 
conscious  that  it  could  bear  discussion  as  little  as  slavery  itself, 
caused  it  to  be  adopted  through  the  operation  of  the  previous 
question,  by  a  silent  vote. 

We  have  exhibited  the  character  of  slavery  and  the  slave- 
trade  at  the  seat  of  the  Federal  Government,  and  have  shown 
that  Congress  is  the  local  legislature  of  the  District  of  Columbia, 
having  "  exclusive  jurisdiction  over  it  in  all  cases  whatever." 
Now  one  of  the  peculiar  atrocities  of  this  resolution  is,  that  it 
wrests  from  every  member  of  the  House,  his  constitutional  right 
to  propose  such  measures  for  the  government  of  the  District  as 
justice  and  humanity  may  require.  Slaves  might  be  burned 
alive  in  the  streets  of  the  Capital ;  the  slavers  might  be  crowded 
to  suffocation  with  human  victims ;  every  conceivable  cruelty 
might  be  practised,  and  no  one  member  of  the  local  legislature 
could  be  permitted  to  propose  even  a  committee  of  inquiry, 
"  relating  in  any  way,  or  to  any  extent  whatever,  to  the  subject 
of  slavery." 

The  fact  that  sixty-two  northern  members  on  this  occasion 
arrayed  themselves  on  the  side  of  the  slave-holders,  affords  a 
melancholy  and  alarming  proof  of  the  corrupting  influence  which 
slavery  is  exerting  on  the  morality  and  patriotism  of  the  free 
States. 

The  foolish  and  wicked  expedient  to  "  restore  tranquillity  "  to 
the  people,  by  trampling  on  their  rights  and  gagging  their  rep 
resentatives,  failed  of  success.  The  petitioners  at  this  session 
were  34,000  —  at  the  next  the  number  was  swelled  to  ONE  HUN 
DRED  AND  TEN  THOUSAND  !  and  the  gag  was  renewed.  During 
the  session  of  1837-8,  the  number  rose  to  THREE  HUNDRED 
THOUSAND.  Early  in  the  last  mentioned  session,  a  member 
30* 


350  JAY'S  WORKS. 

from  Vermont  presented  a  petition  for  the  abolition  of  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  took  the  liberty  to  offer  some 
remarks  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  This  attempt  to  break  down 
"  the  moral  barriers,"  thew  the  southern  members  into  great 
trepidation,  and  the  scene  which  ensued  illustrates  the  system 
of  intimidation  to  which  we  have  already  adverted.  The  mem 
ber  was  interrupted  by  a  gentleman  from  Virginia,  calling  aloud, 
and  asking  his  colleagues  to  retire  with  him  from  the  hall ;  — 
another  from  Georgia  exclaimed,  that  he  hoped  the  whole  south 
ern  delegation  would  do  the  same ;  —  a  third  from  South  Carolina 
declared,  that  all  the  representatives  from  that  State  "  had 
already  signed  an  agreement."  The  House  adjourned,  and  a 
southern  member  invited  the  gentlemen  from  the  slave-holding 
States  to  meet  immediately  in  an  adjoining  room.  The  meeting 
was  held,  but  its  proceedings  were  not  made  public.  The  result, 
however,  was  manifested  in  the  introduction,  next  morning,  of 
another  gag  resolution,  directing  all  memorials,  petitions  and 
papers  touching  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  national  territo 
ries,  and  the  American  slave-trade,  to  be  laid  on  the  table, 
without  being  printed,  read,  delated,  or  referred,  and  that  no 
farther  action  should  be  had  thereon.  Through  the  acquiescence 
of  northern  members,  it  was  passed  by  a  silent  vote. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  next  session,  a  meeting  of  the  admin 
istration  members  was  held,  at  which  it  was  determined  to  renew 
the  gag:  and  as  a  proof  of  the  devotion  of  the  Democratic 
party  at  the  North  to  the  cause  of  slavery,  it  was  arranged  that 
now,  for  the  first  time,  the  odious  measure  should  be  proposed 
by  a  northern  man :  nay,  not  merely  a  northern  man,  but  a 
native  of  New  England  —  a  representative  from  New  Hamp 
shire.  The  resolution  was  accordingly  introduced,  and  was 
passed  on  the  12th  of  December,  1838,  and  has  given  notoriety 
to  the  name  of  Atherton. 

Thus  we  see  a  persevering,  systematic  effort  on  the  part  of 
Congress  to  protect  slavery  by  suppressing  debate,  and  throw 
ing  contempt  upon  the  petitions  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
American  citizens.  That  this  should  be  done  by  slave-holders, 
was  perhaps  to  be  expected ;  but  that  they  should  be  aided  in 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       351 

such  a  desperate  assault  upon  constitutional  liberty  by  northern 
men,  for  the  paltry  consideration  of  southern  votes  and  southern 
trade,  is  mortifying  and  alarming.  The  meeting  of  extremes  is 
a  trite  illustration  of  human  inconsistency.  If  in  Doctor  John 
son's  time  the  loudest  yelps  for  liberty  were  heard  from  the 
drivers  of  slaves,  the  loudest  yelps  in  the  northern  States 
against  aristocracy,  chartered  monopolies  and  oppression  of  the 
poor,  are  now  heard  from  men  who  are  laboring  to  perpetuate 
the  bondage  of  millions,  by  gag  laws  and  restrictions  on  the 
freedom  of  speech  and  the  press.  These  men  are  acting  from 
party  views,  and  are  rushing  to  battle  under  the  war-cry  of 
"  VAN  BUREN  AND  SLAVERY,"  in  hopes,  through  southern  aux 
iliaries,  of  enjoying  the  spoils  of  victory.  Others  again,  with 
out  the  slightest  sympathy  in  the  political  principles  of  these 
men,  and  with  their  ears  stuffed,  and  their  heart  padded  with 
cotton,  are  cooperating  with  them  in  behalf  of  slavery,  from 
their  love  of  southern  trade.*  We  will  here  close  our  protracted 
investigation  with  a  brief 

RECAPITULATION  OF  THE  ACTION  OF  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERN 
MENT  IN  BEHALF  OF  SLAVERY. 

This  action  we  have  found  exhibited  (omitting  constitutional 
provisions), 

1.  In  its  appointments  to  office. 

2.  In  its  legislation  for  Florida. 

*  The  following  are  strong  and  amusing  instances  of  the  meeting  of  ex 
tremes.  In  the  spring  of  1837,  the  Whig  merchants  of  New  York  sent  a 
deputation  to  "Washington,  to  request  the  President  to  adopt  certain  meas 
ures  to  relieve  the  commercial  embarrassments  of  the  country.  The  request 
was  declined,  and  a  great  meeting  was  convened  to  receive  the  report  of  the 
deputation.  The  report,  which  was  adopted  by  the  meeting,  recommended 
efforts  to  displace  Mr.  Van  Buren,  and  as  one  means  of  effecting  this 
object,  exhorted  the  merchants  to  "  appeal  to  our  brethren  of  the  South  for 
their  generous  cooperation ;  and  promise  them  that  those  who  believe  the 
possession  of  property  of  any  kind  "  (not  excepting  men,  women,  and  chil 
dren,)  "  is  an  evidence  of  merit,  will  be  the  last  to  interfere  with  the  rights 
of  property  of  any  kind ;  discourage  any  effort  to  awaken  an  excitement,  the 
bare  idea  of  Avhich  should  make  every  husband  and  father  shudder  with  horror." 
In  plain  English,  if  the  slave-holders  would  make  common  cause  with  the 
New  York  merchants  against  Mr.  Van  Buren,  they  in  return  would  make 
common  cause  with  the  slave-holders  against  the  abolitionists.  But  Dem 
ocrats  know  the  value  of  southern  votes  quite  as  well  as  the,  Whigs.  Accord 
ingly  we  find  in  the  "Washington  Globe  of  February  9, 1839,  a  speech  intended 
to  have  been  delivered,  but  prevented  by  the  gag  resolution,  by  Mr.  Eli 


352  JAY'S  WORKS. 

3.  In  its  interference  in  behalf  of  the  slave-holders  in  Louis 
iana. 

4.  In  its  efforts  to  degrade  the  free  people  of  color. 

5.  In  its  tolerance  of  slavery  in  territories  under  its  exclusive 
jurisdiction. 

6.  In  its  arbitrary,  unconstitutional,  and  wicked  laws  for  the 
arrest  of  fugitive  slaves. 

7.  In  its  negotiation  with  Great  Britain  and  Mexico  for  the 
surrender  of  fugitive  slaves. 

8.  In  its  invasion  of  Florida,  in  pursuit  of  fugitive  slaves. 

9.  In  its  negotiations  with  Great  Britain  for  compensation  for 
slaves  who  had  taken  refuge  on  board  British  ships-of-war. 

10.  In  its  negotiation  with  Great  Britain  for  compensation 
for  slaves  shipwrecked  in  the  West  Indies. 

11.  In  its  tolerance,  protection,  and  regulation  of  the  Ameri 
can  slave-trade. 

12.  In  its  duplicity,  with  regard  to  the  abolition  of  the  African 
slave-trade. 

Moore,  a  double-refined  Democrat,  President  of  the  New  York  Trades 
Union,  and  representative  from  that  city  in  Congress.  This  gentleman  tells 
us  "the  wild,  enthusiastic,  and  impetuous  spirit  which  kindled  the  fires  of 
Smithfield,  and  strewed  the  plains  of  Palestine  with  the  corses  of  the  cru 
saders,  stands  with  lighted  and  uplifted  torch  hard  by  the  side  of  aboli 
tionism,  ready  to  spread  conflagration  and  death  around  the  land ;  "  he 
declares  that  "  so  long  as  the  DEMOCRATIC  or  State  Rights  party  shall  main 
tain  the  ascendency,  the  efforts  of  the  abolitionists  will  be  comparatively 
innoxious  ;  "  and  he  announces  what  will  be  no  less  news  to  the  New  York 
merchants  than  it  is  to  abolitionists,  that  "  the  Federal  or  NATIONAL  BANK 
PARTY  believe  the  Federal  Legislature  not  only  have  the  power  to  abolish 
slavery  in  this  District  of  Columbia,  but  also  in  the  States." 

Almost  immediately  after  the  publication  of  this  speech,  the  Democratic 
papers  contained  the  following  announcement : — "  JUST  AND  MERITED. — The 
Hon.  Eli  Moore,  of  the  City  of  New  York,  has  been  appointed  surveyor  of 
that  port."  The  reward  was  paid  by  the  President  and  Senate. 

But  the  most  extraordinary  instance  of  the  devotion  of  northern  Democ 
racy  to  southern  despotism,  we  have  yet  met  with,  was  lately  given  in  the 
City  of  New  York.  A  set  of  men,  calling  themselves  "  delegates  of  the 
Democratic  republican  party  (!  /)  for  the  several  wards,"  assembled  to  make 
preparations  for  commemorating  the  declaration  that  "  all  men  are  born  free 
and  equal."  They  resolved  to  have  an  orator  for  the  occasion  ;  but  so  ardent 
and  sublimated  was  their  love  of  liberty,  that  no  northern  Democrat  was 
worthy,  in  their  opinion,  to  declaim  before  them  on  the  "  self-evident  truths," 
and  the  blessing  of  the  Federal  Union.  So  they  selected  for  their  Fourth  of 
July  orator,  JOHN  C.  CALHOUN,  of  South  Carolina,  who  had  evinced  his 
attachment  to  the  Union  by  his  efforts  to  excite  civil  war  —  to  the  liberties 
of  his  country,  by  his  gag  resolutions,  and  his  bill  establishing  a  censorship 
of  the  press  —  and  to  the  rights  of  man,  by  his  avowed  desire  for  the  ever 
lasting  bondage  of  millions  of  his  fellow-men.  The  presidential  election  is 
approaching,  the  vote  of  South  Carolina  is  doubtful,  and  a  compliment  to 
Mr.  Calhoun  may  not  be  useless  to  Mr.  Van  Buren. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       353 

13.  In  its  present  virtual  toleration  of  the  trade. 

14.  In  its  appropriations  to  the  Colonization  Society. 

15.  In  its  Indian  treaties  in  behalf  of  slave-holders. 

1 6.  In*  its  attempted  expulsion  of  the  Seminoles  for  harboring 
fugitive  slaves. 

17.  In  its  efforts  to  prevent  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  Cuba. 

18.  In  its  conduct  towards  Hayti. 

19.  In  its  conduct  towards  Texas. 

20.  In  its  attempt  to  establish  a  censorship  of  the  press. 

21.  In  its  invasion  of  the  right  of  petition,  and  the  freedom 
of  debate. 

Such  has  been  the  action  in  behalf  of  human  bondage,  of  a 
Government  which,  in  the  language  of  the  Constitution,  was 
formed  to  establish  JUSTICE,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  LIBERTY. 

And  by  whom  are  the  men  composing  the  Government,  which 
thus  perverts  the  objects  of  its  institution,  invested  with  their 
power  ?  They  are  the  agents,  the  mere  instruments  of  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States  —  of  the  North  and  the  East,  as  well 
as  of  the  West  and  the  South.  This  consideration  calls  us  to 
consider 

THE    RESPONSIBILITY    OF    THE    FREE    STATES. 

The  advocates  of  slavery  and  the  tools  of  party,  are  continu 
ally  telling  us  that  " the  North  has  nothing  to  do  with  slavery" 
A  volume  might  be  filled  with  facts,  proving  the  fallacy  of  this 
assertion.  There  is  scarcely  a  family  among  us  that  is  not  con 
nected,  by  the  ties  of  friendship,  kindred,  or  pecuniary  interest, 
with  the  land  of  slaves.  That  land  is  endeared  to  us  by  a 
thousand  recollections  —  with  that  land  we  have  continual  com 
mercial,  political,  religious,  and  social  intercourse.  There,  in 
innumerable  instances,  are  our  personal  friends,  our  brothers, 
our  sons  and  our  daughters.  How  malignant  and  foolish  then  is 
the  falsehood,  that  the  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  abo 
litionists  among  us,  are  anxious  to  see  that  land  reeking  in  blood  1 
But  the  more  intimate  are  our  connections  with  that  land,  the 


354  JAY'S  WORKS. 

more  exposed  are  we  to  be  contaminated  by  its  pollutions ;  and 
the  more  imperatively  are  we  bound  to  seek  its  real  welfare. 

Let  it  then  sink  deep  in  our  hearts  — -  let  it  rest  upon  our  con 
sciences,  that  in  every  wicked  and  cruel  act  of  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  in  behalf  of  slavery,  the  people  of  the  North  have 
participated,  —  we  might  almost  say  that  for  all  this  wickedness 
and  cruelty,  they  are  solely  responsible  ;  since  it  could  not  have 
been  perpetrated  but  with  the  consent  of  their  representatives. 
Vast  and  fertile  territories,  which  might  now  have  been  inhabited 
by  a  free  and  happy  population,  have  by  northern  votes  been 
converted,  to  use  the  langauge  of  the  poet,  into 

"  A  land  of  tyrants,  and  a  den  of  slaves." 

By  northern  senators  have  our  African  slavers  been  protected 
from  the  search  of  British  cruisers.  By  northern  representa 
tives  is  the  American  slave-trade  protected,  and  the  abominations 
enacted  in  the  Capital  of  the  Republic,  sanctioned  and  perpet 
uated  :  and  northern  men  are  the  officiating  ministers  in  the 
sacrifice  of  constitutional  liberty  on  the  altar  of  Moloch.  But 
representatives  are  only  the  agents  of  their  constituents,  speaking 
their  thoughts,  and  doing  their  will.  THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE 
NORTH  have  done  "  this  great  wickedness."  When  they  repent, 
when  they  love  mercy,  and  seek  after  justice,  their  representa 
tives  will  no  longer  rejoice  to  aid  in  transforming  the  image  of 
God  into  a  beast  of  burden  —  then  will  the  human  shambles  be 
overthrown  in  the  Capital  —  then  will  slavers,  "  freighted  with 
despair,"  no  longer  depart  from  the  port  of  Alexandria,  nor 
chained  coffles  traverse  the  streets  of  Washington.  Then  will 
the  powers  of  the  Federal  Government  be  exercised  in  protect 
ing,  not  in  annihilating  the  rights  of  man ;  and  then  will  the 
slave-holder,  deprived  of  the  countenance  of  the  free  States,  as 
he  is  already  of  nearly  all  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world,  be  led 
to  reflect  calmly  on  the  character  and  tendency  of  the  institution 
he  now  so  dearly  prizes,  and  seek  his  own  welfare  and  that  of 
his  children  in  its  voluntary  and  peaceful  abolition. 

But  here  we  are  confronted  with  direful  prophecies.  Let  us 
then  proceed  to  inquire  into 


ACTION    OF    THE     GENERAL    GOVERNMENT.  355 

THE    PROBABLE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  AGITATION 
ON    THE    PERMANENCY    OF    THE    UNION. 

Before  we  can  predict  what  this  influence  will  be,  we  must 
first  inquire,  what  will  probably  be  the  direction  and  aim  of  the 
agitation  ?  Every  State  possesses  all  the  powers  of  independent 
sovereignty,  except  such  as  she  has  delegated  to  the  Federal 
Government.  All  the  powers  not  specified  in  the  Constitution 
as  delegated,  are  by  that  instrument  reserved.  Among  the 
powers  specified,  that  of  abrogating  the  slave  codes  of  the 
several  States  is  not  included ;  on  the  contrary,  the  guaranty  of 
the  continuance  of  the  African  slave-trade  for  twenty  years,  the 
provision  for  the  arrest  of  fugitive  slaves,  and  the  establish 
ment  of  the  federal  ratio  of  representation,  all  refer  to  and 
acknowledge  the  existence  of  slavery  under  State  authority.  If, 
therefore,  the  abolitionists,  unmindful  of  their  solemn  and  re 
peated  disclaimers  of  all  power  in  Congress  to  legislate  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  States,  should,  with  unexampled  per 
fidy,  attempt  to  bring  about  such  legislation,  and  if  Congress, 
regardless  of  their  oaths,  should  ever  be  guilty  of  the  consum 
mate  folly  and  wickedness  of  passing  a  law  emancipating  the 
slaves  held  under  State  authority,  the  Union  would  most  unques 
tionably  be  rent  in  twain.  The  South  would  indeed  be  craven 
could  it  submit  to  such  profligate  usurpation ;  it  would  be  com 
pelled  to  withdraw,  not  for  the  preservation  of  slavery  alone, 
but  for  the  protection  of  all  its  rights  ;  and  indeed  the  liberties 
of  every  State  would  be  jeoparded  under  a  government,  which, 
spurning  all  constitutional  restraints,  should  assume  the  omnipo 
tence  of  the  British  Parliament.  But  it  is  scarcely  worth  while 
to  anticipate  the  consequence  of  an  act  which  can  never  be  per 
petrated  so  long  as  the  people  of  the  North  retain  an  ordinary 
share  of  honesty  and  intelligence. 

We  have,  under  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  sufficient 
reasons  for  believing  that  the  anti-slavery  of  the  North  will 
carry  its  action  to  the  very  limits  of  the  Constitution,  but  not 
beyond  them.  In  despite  of  the  coalitions  of  parties  and  the 
intrigues  of  politicians,  liberty  of  speech  and  of  the  press  will 


356  JAY'S  WORKS. 

be  maintained,  and  the  discussion  of  slavery  will  be  extended 
by  the  very  efforts  made  to  arrest  it.  Let  us  suppose  this  dis 
cussion  to  be  attended  with  its  natural  and  probable  result,  the 
conversion  of  the  great  mass  of  the  northern  people  to  the  prin 
ciples  and  avowed  objects  of  the  abolitionists.  Of  course,  those 
principles  and  objects  will  be  embraced  by  their  representatives 
in  Congress.  In  this  case,  we  may  expect  that  slavery  will  be 
abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  that  it  will  be  pro 
hibited  in  the  territories  hereafter  to  be  formed  on  the  west  of 
the  Mississippi.  Thus  far  the  constitutional  power  of  Congress 
cannot  be  rationally  questioned.  Independent  of  the  exclusive 
jurisdiction  over  the  territories  granted  to  Congress,  we  have 
the  precedent  of  the  ordinance  of  1787,  prohibiting  slavery  in 
the  Northwest  Territory,  and  the  more  recent  precedent  of  the 
prohibition  of  it  in  the  Louisiana  territory  north  of  36^°  of  north 
latitude.  The  American  slave-trade  is  now,  and  has  been  for 
upwards  of  thirty  years,  prohibited  in  vessels  under  forty  tons' 
burden.  It  would  not  be  easy  to  show  that  the  Constitution 
forbids  its  prohibition  in  vessels  over  forty  tons'  burden.  We 
may  therefore  take  it  for  granted,  that  the  Senate's  coasting  trade 
will  be  legally  abolished.  Should  the  land  traffic  not  be  also 
destroyed,  it  would  not  be  for  want  of  disposition,  or  constitu 
tional  power  in  Congress,  but  on  account  of  the  extreme  diffi 
culty  which  would  exist  in  preventing  evasions  of  the  law. 

We  have  now  the  sum  total  of  national  legislation  which,  on 
our  present  supposition,  will  result  from  the  anti-slavery  action 
at  the  North.  Yet  we  are  positively  assured  that  such  legisla 
tion  would  cause  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  Now  admitting 
the  constitutional  right  and  the  moral  obligation  of  our  national 
legislators,  to  pass  the  laws  in  question,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
decide  by  Avhat  code  of  morals  they  could  be  excused  from  the 
discharge  of  their  duty  by  the  apprehension  of  consequences. 
If  God  governs  the  world,  more  is  to  be  feared  from  rebellion, 
than  from  obedience  to  his  will.  If  his  wisdom  and  goodness 
are  both  infinite,  his  will  is  and  must  be  an  infallible  standard 
of  expediency.  If  it  be  folly  to  barter  a  single  soul  for  the 
whole  world,  would  it  be  wise  to  expose  a  nation  to  the  wrath  of 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       357 

Heaven,  for  a  boon  which  we  now  hold,  and  would  continue,  to 
hold  at  the  pleasure  of  men  who  are  daily  threatening  to  deprive 
us  of  it  ? 

But  we  have  no  fears  that  Congress  will  ever  find  the  faithful 
discharge  of  their  duty  conflicting  with  the  welfare  and  preserva 
tion  of  the  Union.  How  far  selfish  and  influential  individuals 
may  succeed  in  raising  up  at  the  South  a  party  for  secession,  it  is 
impossible  to  predict ;  but  it  is  not  difficult  to  show  that  a  separa 
tion  founded  on  the  legislation  we  have  specified,  would  be  most 
preposterous  and  disastrous,  and  therefore  we  may  reasonably 
presume  it  will  not  occur. 

Should  the  slave  States  secede,  they  would  do  so,  we  may 
suppose,  for  one  or  more  of  the  following  reasons,  viz. : 

1.  To  protect  their  rights  from  invasion. 

2.  To  guard  and  perpetuate  the  institution  of  slavery. 

3.  To  increase  their  wealth  and  power. 

The  North  is  the  strongest  portion  of  the  confederacy ;  and 
whenever,  unmindful  of  the  federal  compact,  it  wickedly  and 
forcibly  usurps  power  to  the  prejudice  of  the  South,  secession 
is  the  only  resource  left  to  the  latter  for  the  protection  of  its 
rights.  But  a  disregard  to  the  wishes,  does  not  necessarily  imply 
a  violation  of  the  rights  of  the  South.  Not  one  of  the  measures 
we  have  contemplated  as  the  probable  result  of  the  anti-slavery 
agitation,  encroaches  on  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  South ; 
and  therefore  secession,  however  it  might  be  professedly  justified, 
would  in  fact  be  prompted  by  other  motives  than  that  of  self- 
defence.  But  so  long  as  the  Federal  Government  confines  its 
action  against  slavery  within  the  limits  of  the  Constitution,  in 
what  way  would  secession  tend  to  guard  and  perpetuate  the 
institution  ? 

It  is  natural  that  the  slave-holders  should  wish  to  destroy  the 
influence  of  the  abolitionists,  and  hence  they  have  very  unjusti 
fiably  expressed  fears  respecting  them  which  they  do  not  fee?, 
and  circulated  calumnies  which  they  do  not  believe.  The  fol 
lowing  admissions  reveal  the  true  nature  of  the  apprehensions 
entertained  by  the  slave-holders. 
31 


358  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Mr.  CALHOUN,  alluding  in  the  Senate  to  opinions  expressed 
by  some  of  his  southern  colleagues,  exclaimed : 

i(  Do  they  expect  the  abolitionists  will  resort  to  arms,  and  commence 
a  crusade  to  liberate  our  slaves  by  force  ?  Is  this  what  they  mean  when 
they  speak  of  the  attempt  to  abolish  slavery?  If  so,  let* me  tell  our 
friends  of  the  South  who  differ  from  us,  that  the  war  which  the  aboli 
tionists  wage  against  us,  is  of  a  very  different  character,  and  far  more 
effective  —  it  is  waged  not  against  our  lives,  but  our  character." 

Mr.  DUFF  GREEN,  the  editor  of  the  United  States  Telegraph, 
and  the  great  champion  of  slavery,  thus  expressed  himself  in 
his  paper : 

;i  We  are  of  those  who  believe  the  South  has  nothing  to  fear  from  a 
servile  war.  We  do  not  believe  that  the  abolitionists  intend,  nor  could 
they  if  they  would,  excite  the  slaves  to  insurrection.  The  danger  of 
this  is  remote.  We  believe  that  we  have  most  to  fear  from  the  organ 
ized  action  upon  the  consciences  and  fears  of  the  slave-holders  them 
selves;  from  the  insinuation  of  their  dangerous  heresies  into  our 
schools,  our  pulpits,  and  our  domestic  circles.  It  is  only  by  alarming 
the  consciences  of  the  weak  and  feeble,  and  diffusing  among  our  people 
a  morbid  sensibility  on  the  question  of  slavery,  that  the  abolitionists 
can  accomplish  their  object."  * 

We  would  now  respectfully  submit  to  Mr.  Calhoun's  consider 
ation,  whether  a  secession  would  tend  in  any  way  to  defend  the 
characters  of  slave-holders  from  the  war  he  contends  is  waged 
against  them ;  or  fortify  their  consciences  against  the  "  danger 
ous  heresies  "  by  which  they  are  assailed. 

The  new  slave-nation  would  acquire  from  her  separate  inde 
pendence,  no  new  power  to  darken  the  understandings,  or 
benumb  the  consciences  of  her  citizens.  The  freedom  of  the 
press  throughout  the  whole  slave-region,  is  already  extin- 
giiished.f  Not  one  single  newspaper,  from  Maryland  to  Florida, 

*The  New  York  Whig  merchants  may  learn  from  this  candid  avowal,  that 
the  "bare  idea  "  of  the  abolition  excitement  does  not  make  every  "  husband 
and  father  slvudder  with  horror  "  at  the  South,  whatever  it  may  do  in  Wall 
street. 

f  This  assertion  will  not  probably  be  denied,  still  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 
adduce  southern  proof  of  its  truth.  The  Missouri  Argus,  published  at  St 
Louis,  speaking,  in  April,  1839,  of  an  editor  in  Ohio,  remarked  :  "  Mr.  Ham 
mond  deems  the  cooperation  of  the  Eastern  fanatics  to  be  all-important  to 
the  success  of  Whiggery,  and  fears  that  the  timid  course  of  his  brother  edi 
tors  on  this  subject  may  be  productive  of  mischief.  He  should  recollect, 
however,  that  the  abolition  editors  in  slave  States  will  not  dare  to  avow 
their  opinions.  It  would  be  INSTANT  DEATH  to  them." 


ACTION  OP  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       359 

dares  to  raise  its  voice  in  favor  of  immediate  emancipation ; 
and  a  southern  publication,  for  expressing  views  unfavorable  to 
slavery,  notwithstanding  its  bitter  denunciations  of  abolitionists, 
was  lately  taken  from  a  post-office  in  Virginia,  and  in  pursuance 
of  the  laivs  of  the  State,  committed  to  the  flames  by  order  of  the 
public  authorities  ;  and  when  the  laws  are  silent,  Lynch  clubs 
are  ready  to  visit  with  infamous  and  cruel  penalties  the  man 
who  presumes  to  advocate  the  inalienable  rights  of  man.  What 
new  ramparts  could  the  southern  confederacy  build  around  their 
beloved  institution?  What  new  weapons  could  they  forge 
against  freedom  of  discussion  ? 

At  the  North,  the  discussion  of  slavery  is  now  greatly 
restricted  by  political  and  mercenary  considerations  ;  but  such 
considerations  would  be  dissipated  in  a  moment  by  secession. 
The  very  demagogues  who  are  now  fawning  upon  the  slave 
holders  for  their  votes,  would,  when  they  had  no  longer  votes  to 
bestow,  seek  popularity  in  ultra  hatred  to  slavery. 

The  anti-slavery  agitation  at  the  North  is  at  present  chiefly 
confined  to  the  religious  portion  of  the  community ;  it  would 
then  extend  to  all  classes,  and  be  embittered  by  national  ani 
mosity.  Slavery  would  appear  more  odious  and  detestable  than 
ever,  after  having  destroyed  the  fair  fabric  of  American  Union, 
and  severed  the  ties  of  kindred  and  of  friendship,  to  rivet  more 
firmly  the  fetters  of  the  bondman. 

The  slave-holders  are  now  our  fellow  countrymen  and 
citizens ;  they  would  then  be  foreigners  who  had  discarded  our 
friendship  and  connection,  that  they  might  trample  with  more 
unrestrained  violence  upon  the  rights  and^.  liberties  of  their 
fellow-men.  These  considerations  show  that  any  expectation  of 
extinguishing  or  weakening  the  anti-slavery  feeling  at  the 
North  by  separation,  must  be  utterly  futile. 

A  separation  would,  moreover,  deprive  the  institution  of  the 
protection  of  the  Federal  Government.  Should  the  slaves 
attempt  to  revolt,  the  masters  would  be  left  to  struggle  with 
them,  unaided  by  the  fleets  and  armies  of  the  whole  Republic. 

And  by  what  power  would  the  master  recapture  his  fugitive 
who  had  crossed  the  boundary  of  the  new  empire  ?  Now  he 


360  JAY'S  WORKS. 

may  hunt  him  through  the  whole  confederacy,  nor  is  the 
trembling  wretch  secure  of  his  liberty,  till  he  beholds  the  Brit 
ish  standard  waving  above  him.  Then  freedom  would  be  the 
boon  of  every  slave  who  could  swim  the  Ohio,  or  reach  the 
frontier  line  of  the  free  republic.  And  this  frontier  line,  be  it 
remembered,  would  be  continually  advancing  South.  The  anti- 
slavery  feelings  of  the  North,  aggravated  as  they  would  be  by 
the  secession,  would  afford  every  possible  facility  to  the  fugitive, 
and  laws  would  then  be  passed,  not  for  the  restoration  of  human 
property,  but  for  the  protection  of  human  rights. 

Would  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  afford  the  southern 
planters  a  more  unrestricted  enjoyment  of  the  foreign  or 
domestic  slave-trade  ?  Alas !  from  the  moment  of  separation, 
slave-trading  becomes  PIRACY  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  name,  and 
the  crews  of  New  Orleans  and  Alexandria,  as  well  as  of  African 
slavers,  would  swing  on  northern  gibbets. 

We  confess  then  our  utter  inability  to  perceive  in  what 
possible  mode  a  secession  of  the  southern  States  would  tend  to 
guard  and  perpetuate  the  institution  of  slavery. 

Would  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  augment  the  power  and 
wealth  of  the  slave  States  ?  The  power  and  wealth  of  a  nation 
depend  on  its  population,  industry  and  commerce.  The  increase 
of  the  white  population  at  the  South  is  now  small,  compared 
with  the  wonderful  tide  of  life  which  is  rolling  over  the  western 
plains.  And  when  the  southern  region  shall  be  insulated  from 
the  sympathies  of  the  whole  civilized  world,  and  consecrated  to 
a  stern  and  remorseless  despotism, — a  despotism  sooner  or  later 
to  be  (ingulfed  in  blood, — by  what  attraction  will  it  divert  the 
tide  of  emigration  from  the  fair  prairies  of  the  west,  to  its  own 
sugar  and  cotton-fields  ?  If,  even  now,  armed  patrols  must 
traverse  at  night  the  streets  and  highways  that  the  whites  may 
sleep  in  safety,  and  military  preparation  is  essential  to  domestic 
security,*  what  husband  or  father  will  take  up  his  residence  in 
the  new  empire,  when  withdrawn  from  the  protection  of  the 

*  "  A  state  of  military  preparation  must  always  be  with  ns  a  state  of  per 
fect  domestic  security.  A  profound  peace,  and  consequent  apathy,  may  ex 
pose  us  to  the  danger  of  domestic  insurrection."  Message  of  Gov.  Hayne  to 
the  Legislature  of  South  Carolina,  1833. 


ACTION  OP  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       361 

Federal  Government  and  the  friendship  of  its  neighbors  ?  The 
slaves  are  now  rapidly  gaining  on  their  masters,  and  will 
increase  in  a  still  greater  ratio  after  the  separation,  since  the 
prudent  and  the  enterprising  will  abandon  the  doomed  region, 
and  few  or  none  will  enter  it  from  without.  Hence  it  is  obvious 
that  the  white  population  of  the  southern  States  could  gain  no 
accession  from  their  erection  into  a  separate  confederacy. 

Would  secession  augment  the  wealth  of  the  South  ?  Be  it 
remembered  that  there  is  now  no  one  restriction  on  southern 
industry  and  enterprise  which  separation  would  remove.  The 
slave-holders  in  Congress,  with  rare  exceptions,  have  conducted 
the  affairs  of  the  nation  to  suit  themselves.  So  far  as  the 
interests  of  the  northern  manufacturer  were  identified  with  the 
tariff,  they  have  been  sacrificed  at  the  mandate  of  the  cotton- 
grower  ;  and  so  far  as  national  legislation  can  promote  the 
wealth  of  the  South,  the  statutes  are  already  enacted. 

It  will  not  be  denied  that  the  larger  portion  of  the  strength  of 
the  Union, — population,  money,  commerce,  and  shipping, — is  to 
be  found  at  the  North.  In  all  these  elements  of  national  power, 
the  South  participates  equally  with  the  North.  The  foreign 
invader  is  kept  from  her  shores,  and  her  property  abroad  is 
protected  from  spoliation  at  least  as  much  by  the  power  of  the 
North  as  by  her  own.  Her  strength  for  all  purposes  of  defence, 
is  the  strength  of  the  Union.  What  would  it  be  after  secession  ? 
True  it  is,  the  South  would  receive  Texas  into  her  arms,  but 
she  would  derive  neither  honor  nor  power  from  the  loathsome 
embrace.  Annexation  noio  would  insure  to  her  the  political 
dominion  of  the  whole  Republic,  but  after  secession,  would 
cause  rather  weakness  than  strength. 

As  we  can  discover  no  possible  advantage  which  the  South 
could  derive  from  secession,  we  are  convinced  that  the  threats  of 
dissolving  the  Union,  which  her  statesmen  are  so  prodigal  in 
scattering,  are  the  ebullitions  of  passion,  or  the  devices  of  policy, 
rather  than  the  result  of  mature  determination.  This  conviction 
is  strengthened  by  still  further  considerations. 

Should  the  slave  States  withdraw  without  any  aggression  on 
their  rights,  but  for  the  sole  purpose  of  enjoying  in  greater  pri- 
31* 


362  JAY'S  WORKS. 

vacy  and  tranquillity  the  sweets  of  slavery,  they  would  leave  the 
whole  North  in  a  state  of  high  exasperation.  The  ligaments 
which  have  so  long  bound  us  together,  cannot  be  ruthlessly  and 
wantonly  torn  asunder,  without  causing  deep  and  festering  wounds, 
the  consequences  of  which  the  imagination  revolts  from  antici 
pating.  And  in  what  light  would  the  dark  and  gloomy  despotism 
be  viewed  by  the  civilized  world  ?  Mankind  would  behold,  and 
wonder,  and  despise.  The  new  State  would  be  excluded  from 
the  companionship  of  nations.  Her  cotton  would  indeed  be  still 
purchased,  as  we  buy  the  coffee  of  Hayti ;  but  with  the  least  pos 
sible  intimacy.  Already  is  our  Minister  at  London  treated  with 
contumely,  because  he  is  a  slave-holder;  as  the  representative 
only  of  the  men  who  had  shattered  the  American  Republic  to 
secure  the  permanency  of  human  bondage,  he  would  not  be 
endured  at  any  court  in  Europe,  with  the  exception  of  Constan 
tinople.  In  a  few  years,  the  slaves  would  attain  a  frightful 
numerical  superiority  over  their  masters.  The  dread  of  insur 
rection  within,  and  of  aggression  from  without,  would  realize  the 
prediction  of  holy  writ,  when  men's  hearts  shall  fail  them  for 
fear,  and  for  looking  after  those  things  which  are  coming  on  the 
earth.  At  length  the  fatal  period  would  arrive,  when,  stung  with 
insults  and  injuries,  the  new  empire  would  appeal  to  arms ;  and 
should  a  hostile  army  land  upon  its  shores,  the  standard  of  eman 
cipation  would  be  reared,  and  slavery  would  expire  in  blood.* 

We  well  know  with  what  indignant  feelings  these  pages  will 
at  first  be  read  by  many ;  and  fortunate  shall  we  deem  ourselves 

*  "  March  29,  1779.  The  committee  appointed  to  take  into  consideration 
the  circumstances  of  the  southern  States,  and  the  ways  and  means  for  their 
safety  arid  defence,  report :  That  the  State  of  Soiith  Carolina,  as  represented 
by  the  delegates  of  the  said  State,  and  by  Mr.  linger,  who  has  come  hither 
at  the  request  of  the  governor  of  said  State,  on  purpose  to  explain  the  partic 
ular  circumstances  thereof,  is  unable  to  make  any  effectual  efforts  with  militia, 
by  reason  of  the  great  proportion  of  citizens  necessary  to  remain  at  home  to  prevent 
insurrection  among  the  negroes,  and  to  prevent  the  desertion  of  them  to  the  ene 
my.  That  the  state  of  the  country  and  the  great  numbers  of  those  people 
among  them,  expose  the  inhabitants  to  great  danger  from  the  endeavors  of 
the  enemy  to  excite  them  either  to  revolt  or  desert."  Secret  Journal  of  Con 
gress.  Vol.  i,  p.  105. 

Whether  the  South  Carolinians  are  from  their  present  "particular  circum 
stances,"  less  in  danger  from  a  foreign  invader  than  in  1779,  may  be  seen 
from  the  following  statement :  In  1799  there  were  in  that  State  107,094  slaves 
and  140,178  whites  ;  in  1830,  the  colored  population  was  323,322,  the  white  only 
257,863. 


ACTION  OF  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT.       363 

should  we  escape  the  imputation  of  writing  to  promote  insurrec 
tion  and  disunion.  But  we  appeal  from  the  decision  of  angry 
passion,  to  that  of  calm  reflection.  Do  we  not  speak  the  words 
of  truth  and  soberness  ?  Do  not  the  signs  of  the  times  warrant 
our  predictions  ?  In  what  respect  do  the  sentiments  we  have 
uttered  conflict  with  the  lessons  of  history,  or  the  character  of 
human  nature  ?  Do  we  love  the  union  of  the  States  ?  (!)  If 
such  a  love  can  descend  by  inheritance,  we  should  possess  it ;  if 
it  can  be  founded  on  the  most  thorough  conviction  of  the  impor 
tance  of  union  not  merely  to  the  prosperity  of  our  country,  but 
to  the  happiness  of  numerous  and  beloved  children  and  relatives, 
we  should  possess  it.  If  the  history  of  the  States  of  Greece, 
of  Italy,  of  Holland,  of  Germany,  of  South  America,  and  of  our 
own  land,  demonstrates  the  blessings  of  union  and  the  calamities 
of  separation,  then  should  the  prayer  of  every  American  ascend 
to  Heaven  for  the  perpetuity  of  the  American  Union.  But  let 
it  be  a  union  for  the  preservation,  not  the  destruction  of  liberty: 
a  union  cemented  by  a  sacred  observance  of  the  constitutional 
compact,  not  enforced  by  gag  laws,  a  censorship  of  the  press, 
and  the  abrogation  of  the  right  of  petition  ;  a  union  in  conform 
ity  with  the  will  of  God,  not  in  contempt  of  his  authority  ;  a  union 
that  shall  be  regarded  as  a  common  blessing,  not  held  as  a  boon 
from  the  South,  ever  ready  to  be  withdrawn  as  a  penalty  for  the 
discharge  of  moral  and  political  duties. 

May  Almighty  God  in  mercy  preserve  the  friends  of  emanci 
pation  from  the  sin  and  folly  of  even  hazarding  the  Union,  by 
the  slightest  encroachment  on  the  constitutional  rights  of  the 
South,  and  may  he  give  them  grace  to  maintain  their  own  rights 
,  in  defiance  of  every  menace. 


APPENDIX. 


HAVING  mentioned  the  charge  made  by  President  Jackson  against  the  New 
York  abolitionists,  in  his  message  to  Congress,  and  alluded  to  the  letter  they 
addressed  to  him  respecting  it,  we  have  thought  it  might  be  useful  to  insert 
here  the  letter  itself,  as  showing  more  in  detail  one  of  the  unwarrantable  ex 
pedients  to  which  the  Federal  Government  has  resorted  in  behalf  of  slavery. 

"  To  the  President  of  the  United  States: 

"  SIR  :-~In  your  message  to  Congress  of  the  7th  instant,  are  the  following 
passages:  'I  must  also  invite  your  attention  to  the  painful  excitement  pro 
duced  in  the  South,  by  attempts  to  circulate  through  the  mails,  inflammatory 
appeals,  addressed  to  the  passions  of  the  slaves,  in  prints  and  in  various  sorts 
of  publications,  calculated  to  stimulate  them  to  insurrection,  and  produce  all  the 
horrors  of  a  servile  war.  There  is,  doubtless,  no  respectable  portion  of  our 
countrymen  who  can  be  so  far  misled  as  to  feel  any  other  sentiment  than  that 
of  indignant  regret,  at  conduct  so  destructive  of  the  harmony  and  peace  of 
the  country,  and  so  repugnant  to  the  principles  of  our  national  compact,  and  to 
the  dictates  of  humanity  and  religion.'  You  remark,  that  it  is  fortunate  that 
the  people  of  the  North  have  'given  so  strong  and  impressive  a  tone  to  the 
sentiments  entertained  against  the  proceedings  of  the  misguided  persons 
who  have  engaged  in  these  unconstitutional  and  icicked  attempts.'  And  you 
proceed  to  suggest  to  Congress,  'the  propriety  of  passing  such  a  law  as  will 
prohibit,  under  severe  penalties,  the  circulation  in  the  southern  States, 
through  the  mails,  of  incendiary  publications,  intended  to  instigate  the  slaves 
to  insurrection.' 

"A  servile  insurrection,  as  experience  has  shown,  involves  the  slaughter 
of  the  whites,  without  respect  to  sex  or  age.  Hence,  sir,  the  purport  of  the 
information  you  have  communicated  to  Congress  and  to  the  world,  is,  that 
there  are  American  citizens  who,  in  violation  of  the  dictates  of  humanity  and 
religion,  have  engaged  in  unconstitutional  and  wicked  attempts  to  circulate, 
through  the  mails,  inflammatory  appeals  addressed  to  the  passions  of  the 
slaves,  and  which  appeals,  as  is  implied  in  the  object  of  your  proposed  law, 
are  intended  to  stimulate  the  slaves  to  indiscriminate  massacre.  Recent 
events  irresistibly  confine  the  application  of  your  remarks  to  the  officers  and 
members  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  and  its  auxiliaries. 

"On  the  28th  of  March,  1834,  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  passed  the 
following  resolution : 

"  '  Resolved,  That  the  President,  in  relation  to  the  public  revenue,  has  as 
sumed  upon  himself  authority  and  power  not  conferred  by  the  Constitution 
and  laws,  but  in  derogation  of  both.' 


APPENDIX.  365 

"  On  the  5th  of  the  ensuing  month,  you  transmitted  to  that  body  your  '  sol 
emn  protest'  against  their  decision.  Instructed  by  your  example,  we  now, 
sir,  in  behalf  of  the  Society  of  which  we  are  the  constituted  organs,  and  in 
behalf  of  all  who  are  associated  with  it,  present  to  you  this,  our  'solemn  pro 
test,'  against  your  grievous  and  unfounded  accusations. 

"  Should  it  be  supposed  that  in  thus  addressing  you  we  are  wanting  in  the 
respect  due  to  your  exalted  station,  we  offer,  in  our  vindication,  your  own 
acknowledgment  to  the  Senate  :  '  Subject  only  to  the  restraints  of  truth  and 
justice,  the  free  people  of  the  United  States  have  the  undoubted  right  as 
individuals,  or  collectively,  orally,  or  in  writing,  at  such  times  and  in  such 
language  and  form  as  they  may  think  proper,  to  discuss  his  (the  President's) 
official  conduct,  and  to  express  and  promulgate  their  opinions  concerning  it.' 

"In  the  exercise  of  this  'undoubted  right,'  we  protest  against  the  judg 
ment  you  have  pronounced  against  the  abolitionists. 

"First,  because,  in  rendering  that  judgment  officially,  you  assumed  a  pow 
er  not  belonging  to  your  office. 

"You  complained  that  the  resolution  censuring  your  conduct,  'though 
adopted  by  the  Senate  in  its  legislative  capacity,  is,  in  its  effects  and  in  its 
characteristics,  essentially  judicial.'  And  thus,  sir,  although  the  charges  of 
which  we  complain  were  made  by  you  in  your  executive  capacity,  they  are, 
equally  with  the  resolution,  essentially  judicial.  The  Senate  adjudged  that 
your  conduct  was  unconstitutional.  You  pass  the  same  judgment  on  our 
efforts.  Nay,  sir,  you  go  farther  than  the  Senate.  That  body  forbore  to  im 
peach  your  motives  —  but  you  have  assumed  the  prerogatives,  not  only  of  a 
court  of  law,  but  of  conscience,  and  pronounce  our  efforts  to  be  wicked  as  well 
as  unconstitutional. 

"Secondly,  we  protest  against  the  publicity  you  have  given  to  your  accusa 
tions. 

"You  felt  it  to  be  a  grievance,  that  the  charge  against  you  was  'spread 
upon  the  Journal  of  the  Senate,  published  to  the  nation  and  to  the  world, 
made  part  of  our  enduring  archives,  and  incorporated  in  the  history  of  the 
age.  The  punishment  of  removal  from  office,  and  future  disqualification, 
does  not  follow  the  decision ;  but  the  moral  influence  of  a  solemn  declara 
tion  by  a  majority  of  the  Senate,  that  the  accused  is  guilty  of  the  offence 
charged  upon  him,  has  been  as  effectually  secured  as  if  the  like  declaration 
had  been  made  upon  an  impeachment  expressed  in  the  same  terms.' 

"And  is  it  nothing,  sir,  that  we  are  officially  charged  by  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  with  wicked  and  unconstitutional  efforts,  and  with  harbor 
ing  the  most  execrable  intentions  ?  and  this,  too,  in  a  document  spread  upon 
the  Journals  of  both  Houses  of  Congress,  published  to  the  nation  and  to  the 
world,  made  part  of  our  enduring  archrres,  and  incorporated  in  the  history  of 
the  age  ?  It  is  true,  that  although  you  have  given  judgment  against  us,  you 
cannot  award  execution.  We  are  not,  indeed,  subjected  to  the  penalty  of 
murder;  but  need  we  ask  you,  sir,  what  must  be  the  moral  influence  of  your 
declaration,  that  we  have  intended  its  perpetration  ? 

'•Thirdly,  we  protest  against  your  condemnation  of  us  unheard. 

"  What,  sir,  was  your  complaint  against  the  Senate?  'Without  notice, 
unheard,  and  untried,  I  find  myself  charged,  on  the  records  of  the  Senate, 
and  in  a  form  unknown  in  our  country,  with  the  high  crime  of  violating  the 
laws  and  Constitution  of  my  country.  No  notice  of  the  charge  was  given  to 
the  accused,  and  no  opportunity  afforded  him  to  respond  to  the  accusation—* 
to  meet  his  accusers  face  to  face  —  to  cross-examine  the  witnesses •— to  pro 
cure  counteracting  testimony,  or  to  be  heard  in  his  defence.' 

"  Had  you,  sir,  done  to  others  as  it  thus  seems  you  would  that  others  should 
do  to  you,  no  occasion  would  have  been  given  for  this  protest.  You  most 
truly  assert,  in  relation  to  the  conduct  of  the  Senate,  '  It  is  the  policy  of  our 
benign  system  of  jurisprudence,  to  secure  in  all  criminal  proceedings,  and 
even  in  the  most  trivial  litigations,  a  fair,  unprejudiced,  and  impartial  trial.' 
And  by  what  authority,  sir,  do  you  except  such  of  your  fellow-citizens  as 
are  known  as  abolitionists  from  the  benefit  of  this  benign  system?  When 
has  a  fair,  unprejudiced,  and  impartial  trial  been  accorded  to  those  who  dare 
to  maintain  that  all  men  are  equally  entitled  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit 


366  JAY'S  WORKS. 

of  happiness  ?  What  was  the  trial,  sir,  which  preceded  the  judgment  you 
have  rendered  against  them  ? 

"Fourthly,  we  protest  against  the  vagueness  of  your  charges. 

"We  cannot  more  forcibly  describe  the  injustice  you  have  done  us  than  by 
adopting  your  own  indignant  remonstrance,  against  what  you  deemed  similar 
injustice  on  the  part  of  the  Senate  :  'Some  of  the  first  principles  of  natural 
right  and  enlightened  jurisprudence,  have  been  violated  in  the  very  form  of 
the  resolution.  It  carefully  abstains  from  averring  in  which  of  the  late  pro 
ceedings  the  President  has  assumed  upon  himself  authority  and  power  not 
conferred  by  the  Constitution  and  laws.  Why  was  not  the  certainty  of  the 
Offence,  the  nature  and  cause  of  the  accusation,  set  out  in  the  manner  required 
in  the  Constitution,  before  even  the  humblest  individual,  for  the  smallest 
crime,  can  be  exposed  to  condemnation  ?  Such  a  specification  was  due  to 
the  accused,  that  he  might  direct  his  defence  to  the  real  points  of  attack.  A 
more  striking  illustration  of  the  soundness  and  necessity  of  the  rules  which 
forbid  vayue  and  indefinite  generalities,  and  require  a  reasonable  certainty  in 
all  judicial  allegations,  and  a  more  glaring  instance  of  the  violation  of  these 
rules,  have  seldom  been  exhibited.' 

"It  has  been  reserved  for  you,  sir,  to  exhibit  a  still  more  striking  illustra 
tion  of  the  importance  of  these  rules,  and  a  still  more  glaring  instance  of 
their  violation.  You  have  accused  an  indefinite  number  of  your  fellow-citi 
zens,  without  designation  of  name  or  residence,  of  making  unconstitutional 
and  wicked  efforts,  and  of  harboring  intentions  which  could  be  entertained 
only  by  the  most  depraved  and  abandoned  of  mankind  ;  and  yet  you  carefully 
abstain  from  averring  which  article  of  the  Constitution  they  have  transgressed ; 
you  omit  stating  when,  where,  and  by  whom  these  wicked  attempts  were 
made  ;  you  give  no  specification  of  the  inflammatory  appeals  which  you  assert 
have  been  addressed  to  the  passions  of  the  slaves.  You  well  know  that  the 
'  moral  influence*  of  your  charges  will  affect  thousands  of  your  countrymen, 
many  of  them  your  political  friends — some  of  them  heretofore  honored  with 
your  confidence — most,  if  not  all  of  them,  of  irreproachable  characters  ;  and 
yet,  by  the  very  vagueness  of  your  charges,  you  incapacitate  each  one  of  this 
multitude  from  proving  his  innocence. 

"Fifthly,  we  protest  against  your  charges  because  they  are  untrue.  Surely, 
sir,  the  burden  of  proof  rests  upon  you.  If  you  possess  evidence  against  us, 
we  are,  by  your  own  showing,  entitled  to  <  an  opportunity  to  cross-examine 


the  Senate  the  model  of  your  own.  Conscious  of  the  wrong  done  to  you,  and 
protesting  against  it,  you  found  yourself  compelled  to  enter  on  your  defence. 
You  have  placed  us  in  similar  circumstances,  and  we  proceed  to  follow  your 
example : 

"  The  substance  of  your  various  allegations  may  be  embodied  in  the  charge, 
that  ice  have  attempted  to  circulate,  through  the  mails,  appeals  addressed  to  the 
passions  of  the  slaves,  calculated  to  stimulate  them  to  insurrection,  and  with  the 
intention  of  producing  a  servile  war. 

"It  is  deserving  of  notice,  that  the  attempt  to  circulate  our  papers  is  alone 
charged  upon  us.  It  is  not  pretended  that  we  have  put  our  appeals  into  the 
hands  of  a  single  slave,  or  that,  in  any  instance,  our  endeavors  to  excite  a 
servile  war  have  been  crowned  with  success.  And  in  what  way  were  our 
most  execrable  attempts  made  ?  By  secret  agents,  traversing  the  slave  coun 
try  in  disguise,  stealing  by  night  into  the  hut  of  the  slave,  and  there  reading 
to  him  our  inflammatory  appeals  ?  You,  sir,  answer  this  question  by  declar 
ing  that  we  attempted  the  mighty  mischief  by  circulating  our  appeals 
'THROUGH  THE  MAILS !'  And  are  the  southern  slaves,  sir,  accustomed  to  re 
ceive  periodicals  by  mail  ?  Of  the  thousands  of  publications  mailed  from  the 
Anti-Slavery  office  for  the  South,  did  you  ever  hear,  sir,  of  one  solitary  paper 
being  addressed  to  a  slave  ?  Would  you  know  to  whom  they  were  directed, 
consult  the  southern  newspapers,  and  you  will  find  them  complaining  that 
they  were  sent  to  public  officers,  clergymen,  and  other  influential  citizens. 
Thus  it  seems  we  are  incendiaries,  who  place  the  torch  in  the  hands  of  him 


APPENDIX.  367 

whose  dwellings  \ve  would  five  !  We  are  conspiring  to  excite  a  servile  war, 
and  annoxince  our  design  to  the  masters,  and  commit  to  their  care  and  dis 
posal  the  very  instruments  by  which  we  expect  to  effect  our  purpose !  It  has 
been  said  that  thirty  or  forty  of  our  papers  were  received  at  the  South,  directed 
to  free  people  of  color.  We  cannot  deny  the  assertion,  because  these  papers 
may  have  been  mailed  by  others  for  the  sinister  purpose  of  charging  the  act 
upon  us.  We  are,  however,  ready  to  make  our  several  affidavits,  that  not 
one  paper,  with  our  knowledge,  or  by  our  authority,  has  ever  been  sent  to 
any  such  person  in  a  slave  State.  The  free  people  of  color  at  the  South  can 
exert  no  influence  in  behalf  of  the  enslaved;  and  we  have  no  disposition  to 
excite  odium  against  them,  by  making  them  the  recipients  of  our  publications. 

"  Your  proposal  that  a  law  should  be  passed,  punishing  the  circulation, 
through  the  mails,  of  papers  intended  to  excite  the  slaves  to  insurrection^ 
necessarily  implies  that  such  papers  are  now  circulated  ;  and  you  expressly 
and  positively  assert,  that  we  have  attempted  to  circulate  appeals  addressed 
to  the  passions  of  the  slaves,  and  calculated  to  produce  all  the  horrors  of  a 
servile  icar.  We  trust,  sir,  your  proposed  law,  so  portentous  to  the  freedom 
of  the  press,  will  not  be  enacted,  till  you  have  furnished  Congress  with 
stronger  evidence  of  its  necessity  than  unsupported  assertions.  We  hope 
you  will  lay  before  that  body,  for  its  information,  the  papers  to  which  you 
refer.  This  is  the  more  necessary,  as  the  various  public  journals  and  meet 
ings  which  have  denounced  us  for  entertaining  insurrectionary  and  murder 
ous  designs,  have  in  no  instance  been  able  to  quote  from  our  publications,  a 
single  exhortation  to  the  slaves  to  break  their  fetters,  or  the  expression  of  a 
solitary  wish  for  a  servile  war. 

"  How  far  our  writings  are  '  calculated'1  to  produce  insurrection,  is  a  ques 
tion  which  will  be  variously  decided  according  to  the  latitude  in  which  it  is 
discussed.  When  we  recollect  that  the  humble  school-book,  the  tale  of  fic 
tion,  and  the  costly  annual  have  been  placed  under  the  ban  of  southern  edit 
ors  for  trivial  allusions  to  slavery  —  and  that  a  southern  divine  has  warned 
his  fellow-citizens  of  the  danger  of  permitting  slaves  to  be  present  at  the 
celebration  of  our  national  festival,  where  they  might  listen  to  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  and  to  eulogiums  on  liberty,  —  we  have  little  hope 
that  our  disquisitions  on  human  rights  will  be  generally  deemed  safe  and 
innocent,  where  those  rights  are  habitually  violated.  Certain  writings  of 
one  of  your  predecessors,  President  Jefferson,  would  undoubtedly  be  regard 
ed,  in  some  places,  so  insurrectionary  as  to  expose  to  popular  violence  who 
ever  should  presume  to  circulate  them. 

"  As  therefore,  sir,  there  is  no  common  standard  by  which  the  criminality 
of  opinions  respecting  slavery  can  be  tested,  we  acknowledge  the  foresight 
which  prompted  you  to  recommend  that  the  '  severe  penalties  '  of  your  pro 
posed  law  should  be  awarded,  not  according  to  the  character  of  the  publica 
tion,  but  the  intention  of  the  writer.  Still,  sir,  we  apprehend  that  no  trivial 
difficulties  will  be  experienced  in  the  application  of  your  law.  The  writer 
may  be  anonymous,  or  beyond  the  reach  of  prosecution,  while  the  porter 
who  deposits  the  papers  in  the  post-office,  and -the  mail-carrier  who  trans 
ports  them,  having  no  evil  intentions,  cannot  be  visited  with  the  '  severe 
penalties  ;  '  and  thus  will  your  law  fail  in  securing  to  the  South  that  entire 
exemption  from  all  discussion  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  which  it  so  vehe 
mently  desires.  The  success  of  the  attempt  already  made  to  establish  a 
censorship  of  the  press,  is  not  such  as  to  invite  farther  encroachment  on  the 
rights  of  the  people  to  publish  their  sentiments. 

"  In  your  protest,  you  remarked  to  the  Senate:  'The  whole  Executive 
power  being  vested  in  the  President,  who  is  responsible  for  its  exercise,  it  is 
a  necessary  consequence  that  he  should  have  a  right  to  employ  agents  of  his 
own  choice,  to  aid  him  in  the  performance  of  his  duties,  and  to  discharge  them 
when  he  is  no  longer  willing  to  be  RESPONSIBLE  for  their  acts.  He  is  equally 
bound  to  take  care  that  the  laws  be  faithfully  executed,  whether  they  impose 
duties  on  the  highest  officer  of  State,  or  the  lowest  subordinates  in  any  of  the 
departments.' 


your 


"  It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  you,  sir,  to  be  informed  in  what  manner 
iur  '  Subordinate  '  in  New  York,  who,  on  your  '  responsibility/  is  exercising 


368  JAY'S  WORKS. 

the  functions  of  censor  of  the  American  press,  discharges  the  arduous  duties 
of  this  untried,  and  until  now,  unheard-of  office.  We  beg  leave  to  assure 
you,  that  his  task  is  executed  with  a  simplicity  of  principle,  and  celerity 
of  despatch,  unknown  to  any  censor  of  the  press  in  France  or  Austria.  Your 
subordinate  decides  upon  the  incendiary  character  of  the  publications  com 
mitted  to  the  post-office,  by  a  glance  at  the  wrappers  or  bags  in  which  they 
are  contained.  No  packages  sent  to  be  mailed  from  our  office,  and  directed 
to  a  slave  State,  can  escape  the  vigilance  of  this  inspector  of  canvas  and 
brown  paper.  Even  your  own  protest,  sir,  if  in  an  anti-slavery  envelope, 
would  be  arrested  on  its  progress  to  the  South,  as  '  inflammatory,  incendiary, 
and  insurrectionary  in  the  highest  degree.' 

"  No  veto,  however,  is  as  yet  imposed  on  the  circulation  of  publications 
from  any  printing-office  but  our  own.  Hence,  when  we  desire  to  send  '  ap 
peals  '  to  the  South,  all  that  is  necessary  is,  to  insert  them  in  some  newspa 
per  that  espouses  our  principles,  pay  for  as  many  thousand  copies  as  we 
think  proper,  and  order  them  to  be  mailed  according  to  our  instructions. 

"Such,  sir,  is  the  worthless  protection  purchased  for  the  South,  by  the 
most  unblushing  and  dangerous  usurpation  of  which  any  public  officer  has 
been  guilty  since  the  organization  of  our  Federal  Government.  Were  the 
Senate,  in  reference  to  your  acknowledged  responsibility  for  the  conduct  of 
your  subordinates,  to  resolve  '  that  the  President,  in  relation  to  the  siippres- 
sion  of  certain  papers  in  the  New  York  Post  Office,  has  assumed  upon  him 
self  authority  and  power  not  conferred  by  the  Constitution  and  laws,  but  in 
derogation  of  both,'  instead  of  protesting  against  the  charge,  you  would  be 
compelled  to  acknowledge  its  truth,  and  you  would  plead  the  necessity  of  the 
case  in  your  vindication.  The  weight  to  be  attached  to  such  a  plea,  may  be 
learned  from  the  absurdity  and  inefficacy  of  the  New  York  censorship.  Be 
assured,  sir,  your  proposed  law  to  punish  the  intentions  of  an  author,  will,  in 
its  practical  operations,  prove  equally  impotent. 

"  And  now,  sir,  permit  us  respectfully  to  suggest  to  you  the  propriety  of 
ascertaining  the  real  designs  of  abolitionists,  before  your  apprehensions  of 
them  lead  you  to  sanction  any  more  trifling  with  the  LIBERTY  OF  THE  PKESS. 
You  assume  it  as  a  fact,  that  abolitionists  are  miscreants,  who  are  laboring 
to  effect  the  massacre  of  their  southern  brethren.  Are  you  aware  of  the 
extent  of  the  reproach  which  such  an  assumption  casts  upon  the  character 
of  your  countrymen  ?  In  August  last,  the  number  of  Anti-Slavery  Societies 
known  to  us  was  263 ;  we  have  noio  the  names  of  more  than  350  societies, 
and  accessions  are  daily  made  to  the  multitude  who  embrace  our  principles. 
And  can  you  think  it  possible,  sir,  that  these  citizens  are  deliberately  plot 
ting  murder,  and  furnishing  us  with  funds  to  send  publications  to  the  South 
'  intended  to  instigate  the  slaves  to  insurrection  ? '  Is  there  any  thing  in 
the  character  and  manners  of  the  free  States,  to  warrant  the  imputation  on 
their  citizens  of  such  enormous  wickedness  ?  Have  you  ever  heard,  sir,  of 
whole  communities  in  these  States  subjecting  obnoxious  individuals  to  a 
mock  trial,  and  then,  in  contempt  of  law,  humanity,  and  religion,  deliberate 
ly  murdering  them  ?  You  have  seen,  in  the  public  journals,  great  rewards 
offered  for  the  perpetration  of  hoi'rible  crimes.  We  appeal  to  your  candor, 
and  ask,  were  these  rewards  offered  by  abolitionists,  or  by  men  whose  charges 
against  abolitionists  you  have  condescended  to  sanction  and  disseminate  ? 

"  And  what,  sir,  is  the  character  of  those  whom  you  have  in  your  message 
held  up  to  the  execration  of  the  civilized  world  ?  Their  enemies  being  judges, 
they  are  religious  fanatics.  And  what  are  the  haunts  of  these  plotters  of 
murder  ?  The  pulpit,  the  bench,  the  bar,  the  professor's  chair,  the  hall  of 
legislation,  the  meeting  for  prayer,  the  temple  of  the  Most  High.  But 
strange  and  monstrous  as  is  this  conspiracy,  still  you  believe  in  its  existence, 
and  call  on  Congress  to  counteract  it.  Be  persuaded,  sir,  the  moral  sense 
of  the  community  is  abundantly  sufficient  to  render  this  conspiracy  utterly 
impotent  the  moment  its  machinations  are  exposed.  Only  PROVE  the 
assertions  and  insinuations  in  your  message,  and  you  dissolve  in  an  instant 
every  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  our  land.  Think  not,  sir,  that  we  shall  inter 
pose  any  obstacle  to  an  inquiry  into  our  conduct.  We  invite,  nay,  sir,  we 
entreat  the  appointment  by  Congress  of  a  Committee  of  Investigation  to 


APPENDIX.  369 

visit  the  Anti-Slavery  office  in  New  York.  They  shall  be  put  in  possession 
of  copies  of  all  the  publications  that  have  been  issued  from  our  press.  Our 
whole  correspondence  shall  be  submitted  to  their  inspection ;  our  accounts 
of  receipts  and  expenditures  shall  be  spread  before  them,  and  we  ourselves 
will  cheerfully  answer  under  oath  whatever  interrogatories  they  may  put  to 
us  relating  to  the  charges  you  have  advanced. 

"  Should  such  a  committee  be  denied,  and  should  the  law  you  propose, 
stigmatizing  us  as  felons,  be  passed  without  inquiry  into  the  truth  of  your 
accusation,  and  without  allowing  us  a  hearing,  then  shall  we  make  the  lan 
guage  of  your  protest  our  own,  and  declare  that,  '  If  such  proceedings  shall 
be  approved  and  sustained  by  an  intelligent  people,  then  will  the  great  con 
test  with  arbitrary  power  which  had  established  in  statutes,  in  bills  of  rights, 
in  sacred  charters,  and  in  constitutions  of  government,  the  right  of  every 
citizen  to  a  notice  before  trial,  to  a  hearing  before  condemnation,  and  to  an 
impartial  tribunal  for  deciding  on  the  charge,  have  been  made  in  VAIN.' 

"  Before  we  conclude,  permit  us,  sir,  to  offer  you  the  folloAving  assurances. 

"  Our  principles,  our  objects,  and  our  measures,  are  wholly  uncontami- 
nated  by  considerations  of  party  policy.  Whatever  may  be  our  respective 
opinions  as  citizens,  of  men  and  measures,  as  abolitionists  we  have  expressed 
no  political  preferences,  and  are  pursuing  no  party  ends.  From  neither  of 
the  gentlemen  nominated  to  succeed  you,  have  we  any  thing  to  hope  or  fear  ; 
and  to  neither  of  them  do  we  intend,  as  abolitionists,  to  afford  any  aid  or 
influence.  This  declaration  will,  it  is  hoped,  satisfy  the  partisans  of  the 
rival  candidates  that  it  is  not  necessary  for  them  to  assail  our  rights  by  way 
of  convincing  the  South  that  they  do  not  possess  our  favor. 

"  VVe  have  addressed  you,  sir,  on  this  occasion,  with  republican  plainness 
and  Christian  sincerity  ;  but  with  no  desire  to  derogate  from  the  respect  that 
is  due  to  you,  or  wantonly  to  give  you  pain.  To  repel  your  charges,  and  to 
disabuse  ihe  public,  was  a  duty  we  owed  to  ourselves,  to  our  children,  and 
above  all  to  the  great  and  holy  cause  in  which  we  are  engaged.  That  cause 
we  believe  is  approved  by  our  Maker  ;  and  while  we  retain  this  belief,  it  is 
our  intention,  trusting  to  His  direction  and  protection,  to  persevere  in  our 
endeavors  to  impress  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  our  countrymen,  the 
sinfulness  of  claiming  property  in  human  beings,  and  the  duty  and  wisdom 
of  immediately  relinquishing  it. 

"  When  convinced  that  our  endeavors  are  wrong,  we  shall  abandon  them; 
but  such  conviction  must  be  produced  by  other  arguments  than  vituperation, 
popular  violence,  or  penal  enactments. 

ARTHUR  TAPPAN, 
WILLIAM  JAY, 
JOHN  RANKIN, 
ABRAHAM  L.  COX, 
JOSHUA>  LEAVITT, 
SIMEON  S.  JOSELYN, 
LEWIS  TAPPAN, 
THEODORE  S.  WRIGHT. 
SAMUEL  E.  CORNISH, 
ELIZUR  WRIGHT,  Jn. 

Executive  Commiltes." 
YORK,  Dec.  26,  1835. 


ON  THE 

CONDITION  OF  THE  FREE  PEOPLE  OF  COLOR 

IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


IT  appears  from  the  census  of  1830,  that  there  were  then 
319,467  free  colored  persons  in  the  United  States.  At  the 
present  time  the  number  cannot  be  less  than  360,000.  Fifteen 
States  of  the  Federal  Union  have  each  a  smaller  population 
than  this  aggregate.  Hence  if  the  whole  mass  of  human  beings 
inhabiting  Connecticut,  or  New  Jersey,  or  any  other  of  these 
fifteen  States,  were  subjected  to  the  ignorance  and  degradation 
and  persecution  and  terror  we  are  about  to  describe  as  the  lot 
of  this  much-injured  people,  the  amount  of  suffering  would  still 
be  numerically  less  than  that  inflicted  by  a  professedly  Christian 
and  republican  community  upon  the  free  negroes.  Candor,  how 
ever,  compels  us  to  admit  that,  deplorable  as  is  their  condition, 
it  is  still  not  so  wretched  as  colonizationists  and  slave-holders, 
for  obvious  reasons,  are  fond  of  representing  it.  It  is  not  true 
that  free  negroes  are  "  more  vicious  and  miserable  than  slaves 
can  be,"  *  nor  that  "  it  would  be  as  humane  to  throw  slaves  from 
the  decks  of  the  middle  passage,  as  to  set  them  free  in  this  coun- 

*  Rev.  Mr.  Bacon,  of  New  Haven,  7  Rep.,  Am.  Col.  Soc.,  p.  99. 


372  JAY'S  WORKS. 

try,"*  nor  that  "  a  sudden  and  universal  emancipation  without 
colonization,  would  be  a  greater  CURSE  to  the  slaves  themselves, 
than  the  bondage  in  which  they  are  held." 

It  is  a  little  singular,  that  in  utter  despite  of  these  rash  asser 
tions  slave-holders  arid  colonizationists  unite  in  assuring  us,  that 
the  slaves  are  rendered  discontented  by  witnessing  i\\Q  freedom  of 
their  colored  brethren ;  and  hence  we  are  urged  to  assist  in 
banishing  to  Africa  these  sable  and  dangerous  mementoes  of 
liberty. 

We  all  know  that  the  wife  and  children  of  the  free  negro  are 
not  ordinarily  sold  in  the  market,  that  he  himself  does  not  toil 
under  the  lash,  and  that  in  certain  parts  of  our  country  he  is 
permitted  to  acquire  some  intelligence,  and  to  enjoy  eome  com 
forts,  utterly  and  universally  denied  to  the  slave.  Still  it  is 
most  unquestionable,  that  these  people  grievously  suffer  from  a 
cruel  and  wicked  prejudice  —  cruel  in  its  consequences,  wicked 
in  its  voluntary  adoption  and  its  malignant  character. 

Colonizationists  have  taken  great  pains  to  inculcate  the  opin 
ion  that  prejudice  against  color  is  implanted  in  our  nature  by 
the  Author  of  our  being;  and  whence  they  infer  the  futility  of 
;  every  effort  to  elevate  the  colored  man  in  this  country,  and  con 
sequently  the  duty  and  benevolence  of  sending  him  to  Africa, 
beyond  the  reach  of  our  cruelty.f  The  theory  is  as  false  in  fact 

*  African  Repository,  Vol.  IV,  p.  226. 

f "  Prejudices,  which  neither  refinement,  nor  argument,  nor  education, 
NOR  RELIGION  ITSELF  can  subdue,  mark  the  people  of  color,  whether  bond  or 
free,  as  the  subjects  of  a  degradation  inevitable  and  incurable."  Address  of 
the  Connecticut  Col.  Society.  "The  managers  consider  it  clear  that  causes 
exist,  and  are  now  operating,  to  prevent  their  improvement  and  elevation  to 
any  considerable  extent  as  a  class  in  this  country,  which  are  fixed,  not  only 
beyond  the  control  of  the  friends  of  humanity,  but  of  any  human  power: 
CHRISTIANITY  cannot  do  for  them  here,  what  it  will  do  for  them  in  Africa. 
This  is  not  ihefaiilt  of  the  colored  man,  nor  of  the  white  man,  but  an  ORDI 
NATION  OF  PROVIDENCE,  and  no  more  to  be  changed  than  the  laws  of  nature." 
15th  Rep.,  Am.  Col.  Soc.,  p.  47. 

"The  people  of  color  must,  in  this  country,  remain  for  ages,  probably  for 
ever,  a  separate  and  distract  caste,  weighed  down  by  causes  powerful,  uni 
versal,  invincible,  which  neither  legislation  nor  CHRISTIANITY  can  remove." 
African  Repository,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  196. 

"  Do  they  (the  abolitionists)  not  perceive  that  in  thus  confounding  all  the 
distinctions  which  GOD  himself  has  made,  they  arraign  the  wisdom  and  good 
ness  of  Providence  itself  ?  It  has  been  his  divine  pleasure,  to  make  the  black 
man  black,  and  the  white  man  white,  and  to  distinguish  them  by  other 
repulsive  constitutional  differences."  Speech  in  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
February  7,  1839,%  Henry  Clay,  President  of  the  Am,  Col.  Soc. 


CONDITION  OP  THE  FREE  PEOPLE  OF  COLOR.     373 

as  it  is  derogatory  to  the  character  of  that  God  whom  we  are 
told  is  LOVE.  "With  what  astonishment  and  disgust  should  we 
behold  an  earthly  parent  exciting  feuds  and  animosities  among 
his  own  children  ;  yet  we  are  assured,  and  that  too  by  professing 
Christians,  that  our  heavenly  Father  has  implanted  a  principle 
of  hatred,  repulsion  and  alienation  between  certain  portions  of 
his  family  on  earth,  and  then  commanded  them,  as  if  in  mockery, 
to  "love  one  another." 

In  vain  do  we  seek  in  nature  for  the  origin  of  this  prejudice. 
Young  children  never  betray  it,  and  on  the  continent  of  Europe 
it  is  unknown.  We  are  not  speaking  of  matters  of  taste,  or  of 
opinions  of  personal  beauty,  but  of  a  prejudice  against  com 
plexion,  leading  to  insult,  degradation  and  oppression.  In  no 
country  in  Europe  is  any  man  excluded  from  refined  society,  or 
deprived  of  literary,  religious,  or  political  privileges  on  account 
of  the  tincture  of  his  skin.  If  this  prejudice  is  the  fiat  of  the 
Almighty,  most  wonderful  is  it,  that  of  all  the  kindreds  of  the 
earth,  none  have  been  found  submissive  to  the  heavenly  impulse, 
excepting  the  white  inhabitants  of  North  America ;  and  of  these, 
it  is  no  less  strange  than  true,  that  this  divine  principle  of  repul 
sion  is  most  energetic  in  such  persons  as,  in  other  respects,  are 
the  least  observant  of  their  Maker's  will.  This  prejudice  is 
sometimes  erroneously  regarded  as  the  cause  of  slavery ;  and 
some  zealous  advocates  of  emancipation  have  flattered  themselves 
that,  could  the  prejudice  be  destroyed,  negro  slavery  would  fall 
with  it.  Such  persons  have  very  inadequate  ideas  of  the  malig 
nity  of  slavery.  They  forget  that  the  slaves  in  Greece  and  Rome 
were  of  the  same  hue  as  their  masters  ;  and  that  at  the  South, 
the  value  of  a  slave,  especially  of  a  female,  rises,  as  the  com 
plexion  recedes  from  the  African  standard. 

Were  we  to  inquire  into  the  geography  of  this  prejudice,  we 
should  find  that  the  localities  in  which  it  attains  its  rankest 
luxuriance,  are  not  the  rice-swamps  of  Georgia,  nor  the  sugar- 
fields  of  Louisiana,  but  the  hills  and  valleys  of  New  England, 
and  the  prairies  of  Ohio  !  It  is  a  fact  of  acknowledged  notoriety, 
that  however  severe  may  be  the  laws  against  the  colored  people 
at  the  South,  the  prejudice  against  their  persons  is  far  weaker 

than  among  ourselves. 
32* 


374 

It  is  not  necessary,  for  our  present  purpose,  to  enter  into  a 
particular  investigation  of  the  condition  of  the  free  negroes  in 
the  slave  States.  We  all  know  that  they  suffer  every  form  of 
oppression  which  the  laws  can  inflict  upon  persons  not  actually 
slaves.  That  unjust  and  cruel  enactments  should  proceed  from 
a  people  who  keep  two  millions  of  their  fellow-men  in  abject 
bondage,  and  who  believe  such  enactments  essential  to  the  main 
tenance  of  their  despotism,  certainly  affords  no  cause  for  sur 
prise. 

We  turn  to  the  free  States,  where  slavery  has  not  directly 
steeled  our  hearts  against  human  suffering,  and  where  no  sup 
posed  danger  of  insurrection  affords  a  pretext  for  keeping  the 
free  blacks  in  ignorance  and  degradation ;  and  we  ask,  What  is 
the  character  of  the  prejudice  against  color  here  ?  Let  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Bacon,  of  Connecticut,  answer  the  question.  This  gentle 
man,  in  a  vindication  of  the  Colonization  Society,  assures  us, 
"  The  Soodra  is  not  farther  separated  from  the  Brahim  in  regard 
to  all  his  privileges,  civil,  intellectual,  and  moral,  than  the  negro 
from  the  white  man  by  the  prejudices  which  result  from  the  dif 
ference  made  between  them  by  the  GOD  OF  NATURE."  Rep.  Am. 
Col  Soc.,  p.  87. 

We  may  here  notice  the  very  opposite  effect  produced  on 
abolitionists  and  colonizationists,  by  the  consideration  that  this 
difference  is  made  by  the  GOD  OF  NATURE  ;  leading  the  one  to 
discard  the  prejudice,  and  the  other  to  banish  its  victims. 

With  these  preliminary  remarks  we  will  now  proceed  to  take 
a  view  of  the  condition  of  the  free  people  of  color  in  the  non- 
slave-holding  States ;  and  will  consider  in  order,  the  various 
disabilities  and  oppressions  to  which  they  are  subjected,  either 
by  law  or  the  customs  of  society. 

1.     GENERAL    EXCLUSION    FROM    THE    ELECTIVE    FRANCHISE. 

Were  this  exclusion  founded  on  the  want  of  property,  or  any 
other  qualification  deemed  essential  to  the  judicious  exercise  of 
the  franchise,  it  would  afford  no  just  cause  of  complaint ;  but  it 
is  founded  solely  on  the  color  of  the  skin,  and  is  therefore  irra- 


CONDITION  OP  THE  FREE  PEOPLE  OF  COLOR.     375 

tional  and  unjust.  /  That  taxation  and  representation  should  be 
inseparable,  was  one  of  the  axioms  of  the  fathers  of  our  Revo 
lution,  and  one  of  the  reasons  they  assigned  for  their  revolt 
from  the  crown  of  Britain.  But  now,  it  is  deemed  a  mark  of 
fanaticism  to  complain  of  the  disfranchisement  of  a  whole  race, 
while  they  remain  subject  to  the  burden  of  taxation?)  It  is 
worthy  of  remark,  that  of  the  thirteen  original  States,  only  two 
were  so  recreant  to  the  principles  of  the  Revolution,  as  to  make 
a  white  skin  a  qualification  for  suffrage.  But  the  prejudice  has 
grown  with  our  growth,  and  strengthened  with  our  strength  ;  and 
it  is  believed  that  in  every  State  constitution  subsequently  formed 
or  revised,  (excepting  Vermont  and  Maine,  and  the  revised 
constitution  of  Massachusetts,)  the  crime  of  a  dark  complexion 
has  been  punished,  by  debarring  its  possessor  from  all  approach 
to  the  ballot-box.*  The  necessary  effect  of  this  proscription  in 
aggravating  the  oppression  and  degradation  of  the  colored  inhab 
itants,  must  be  obvious  to  all  who  call  to  mind  the  solicitude 
manifested  by  demagogues,  and  office-seekers,  and  law-makers, 
to  propitiate  the  good  will  of  all  who  have  votes  to  bestow. 

2.     DENIAL    OF    THE     RIGHT    OF    LOCOMOTION. 

It  is  in  vain  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  express 
ly  guarantees  to  "  the  citizens  of  each  State,  all  the  privileges  and 
immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several  States  :  "  —  It  is  in  vain 
that  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has  solemnly 
decided  that  this  clause  confers  on  every  citizen  of  one  State  the 
right  to  "  pass  through,  or  reside  in  any  other  State  for  the  pur 
poses  of  trade,  agriculture,  professional  pursuits,  or  othenvise." 
It  is  in  vain  that  "the  members  of  the  several  State  Legislatures  " 
are  required  to  "be  bound  by  oath  or  affirmation  to  support" 
the  Constitution  conferring  this  very  guaranty.  Constitutions 
and  judicial  decisions  and  religious  obligations  are  alike  outraged 
by  our  State  enactments  against  people  of  color.  There  is 

*  "  From  this  remark  the  revised  constitution  of  New  York  is  nominally  an 
exception,  colored  citizens,  possessing  a  freehold  worth  two  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars,  being  allowed  to  vote  ;  while  suffrage  is  extended  to  white  citi 
zens  without  any  property  qualification. 


376  JAY'S  WORKS. 

scarcely  a  slave  State  in  which  a  citizen  of  New  York,  with  a 
dark  skin,  may  visit  a  dying  child  without  subjecting  himself  to 
legal  penalties.  But  in  the  slave  States  we  look  for  cruelty  ;  we 
expect  the  rights  of  humanity  and  the  laws  of  the  land  to  be 
sacrificed  on  the  altar  of  slavery.  In  the  free  States,  we  had 
reason  to  hope  for  a  greater  deference  to  decency  and  morality. 
Yet  even  in  these  States  we  behold  the  effects  of  a  miasma 
wafted  from  the  South.  The  Connecticut  Black  Act,  prohibit 
ing,  under  heavy  penalties,  the  instruction  of  any  colored  person 
from  another  State,  is  well  known.  It  is  one  of  the  encouraging 
signs  of  the  times,  that  public  opinion  has  recently  compelled 
the  repeal  of  this  detestable  law.  But  among  all  the  free  States, 
OHIO  stands  preeminent  for  the  wickedness  of  her  statutes 
against  this  class  of  our  population.  These  statutes  are  not 
merely  infamous  outrages  on  every  principle  of  justice  and 
humanity,  but  are  gross  and  palpable  violations  of  the  State 
constitution,  and  manifest  an  absence  of  moral  sentiment  in  the 
Ohio  Legislature,  as  deplorable  as  it  is  alarming.  We  speak 
the  language,  not  of  passion,  but  of  sober  conviction  ;  and  for 
the  truth  of  this  language  we  appeal,  first,  to  the  statutes  them 
selves,  and  then  to  the  consciences  of  our  readers.^  We  shall 
have  occasion  to  notice  these  laws  under  the  several  divisions  of 
our  subject  to  which  they  belong ;  at  present  we  ask  attention 
to  the  one  intended  to  prevent  the  colored  citizens  of  other 
States  from  removing  into  Ohio.  By  the  constitution  of  New 
York,  the  colored  inhabitants  are  expressly  recognized  as  "  citi 
zens."  Let  us  suppose,  then,  a  New  York  freeholder  and  voter 
of  this  class,  confiding  in  the  guaranty  given  by  the  Federal 
constitution,  removes  into  Ohio.  No  matter  how  much  property 
he  takes  with  him ;  no  matter  what  attestations  he  produces  to 
the  purity  of  his  character,  he  is  required  by  the  Act  of  1807, 
to  find,  within  twenty  days,  two  freehold  sureties  in  the  sum  of 
five  hundred  dollars  for  his  c/ood  behavior  ;  and  likewise  for  his 
maintenance,  should  he  at  any  future  period,  from  any  cause 
whatever,  be  unable  to  maintain  himself,  and  in  default  of  pro 
curing  such  sureties,  he  is  to  be  removed  by  the  overseers  of  the 
poor  The  Legislature  well  knew  that  it  would  generally  be 


CONDITION    OF    THE   FREE    PEOPLE    OF    COLOR.  377 

utterly  impossible  for  a  stranger,  and  especially  a  black  stranger, 
to  find  such  sureties.  It  was  the  design  of  the  Act,  by  imposing 
impracticable  conditions,  to  prevent  colored  emigrants  from  re 
maining  within  the  State ;  and  in  order  more  certainly  to  effect 
this  object,  it  imposes  a  pecuniary  penalty  on  every  inhabitant 
who  shall  venture  to  "  harbor,"  that  is,  receive  under  his  roof, 
or  who  shall  even  "  employ  "  an  emigrant  who  has  not  given 
the  required  sureties ;  and  it  moreover  renders  such  inhabitant 
so  harboring  or  employing  him  legally  liable  for  his  future 
maintenance ! 

We  are  frequently  told  that  the  efforts  of  the  abolitionists  have 
in  fact  aggravated  the  condition  of  the  colored  people,  bond  and 
free.  The  date  of  this  law,  as  well  as  the  date  of  most  of  the 
laws  composing  the  several  slave-codes,  shows  what  credit  is  to 
be  given  to  the  assertion.  If  a  barbarous  enactment  is  recent, 
its  odium  is  thrown  upon  the  friends  of  the  blacks ;  if  ancient, 
we  are  assured  that  it  is  obsolete.  The  Ohio  law  was  enacted 
only  four  years  after  the  State  was  admitted  into  the  Union. 
In  1800  there  were  only  three  hundred  and  thirty-seven  free 
blacks  m  the  territory,  and  in  1830,  the  number  in  the  State 
was  nine  thousand  five  hundred.  Of  course  a  very  large  pro 
portion  of  the  present  colored  population  of  the  State  must  have 
entered  it  in  ignorance  of  this  iniquitous  law,  or  in  defiance  of  it. 
That  the  law  has  not  been  universally  enforced,  proves  only  that 
the  people  of  Ohio  are  less  profligate  than  their  legislators  ;  that 
it  has  remained  on  the  statute  book  for  thirty-two  years,  proves 
the  depraved  state  of  public  opinion  and  the  horrible  persecution 
to  which  the  colored  people  are  legally  exposed.  But  let  it  not 
be  supposed  that  this  vile  law  is  in  fact  obselete,  and  its  very 
existence  forgotten. 

In  1829,  a  very  general  effort  was  made  to  enforce  this  law, 
and  about  one  thousand  free  blacks  were  in  consequence  of  it 
driven  out  of  the  State,  and  sought  a  refuge  in  the  more  free  and 
Christian  country  of  Canada.  Previous  to  their  departure,  they 
sent  a  deputation  to  the  Governor  of  the  Upper  Province,  to 
know  if  they  would  be  admitted,  and  received  from  Sir  James 
Colebrook  this  reply :  — "  Tell  the  republicans  on  your  side  of 


378  JAY'S  WORKS. 

the  line,  that  we  royalists  do  not  know  men  by  their  color. 
Should  you  come  to  us,  you  will  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges 
of  the  rest  of  his  majesty's  subjects."  This  was  the  origin  of 
the  Wilberforce  colony  in  Upper  Canada. 

We  have  now  before  us  an  Ohio  paper  containing  a  proclama 
tion  by  John  S.  Wiles,  overseer  of  the  poor  in  the  town  of  Fair- 
field,  dated  12th  March,  1838.  In  this  instrument  notice  is 
given  to  all  "  black  or  mulatto  persons  "  residing  in  F  airfield,  to 
comply  with  the  requisitions  of  the  Act  of  1807  within  twenty 
days,  or  the  law  would  be  enforced  against  them.  The  procla 
mation  also  addresses  the  white  inhabitants  of  Fail-field  in  the 
following  terms :  "  Whites,  look  out !  If  any  person  or  persons 
employing  any  black  or  mulatto  person,  contrary  to  the  third 
section  of  the  above  law,  you  may  look  out  for  the  breakers." 
The  extreme  vulgarity  and  malignity  of  this  notice  indicates  the 
spirit  which  gave  birth  to  this  detestable  law,  and  continues  it  in 
being. 

Now  what  says  the  constitution  of  Ohio  ?  i"  ALL  are  born  free 
and  independent,  and  have  certain  natural,  inherent,  inalienable 
rights  ;  among  which  are  the  enjoying,  and  defending  life  and 
liberty,  acquiring,  possessing  and  protecting  property,  and  pur 
suing  and  attaining  happiness  and  safety."  Yet  men  who  had 
called  their  Maker  to  witness  that  they  would  obey  this  very 
constitution,  require  impracticable  conditions,  and  then  impose 
a  pecuniary  penalty  and  grievous  liabilities  on  every  man  who 
shall  give  to  an  innocent  fellow-countryman  a  night's  lodging, 
or  even  a  meal  of  victuals  in  exchange  for  his  honest  labor ! 

3.      DENIAL    OF    THE    RIGHT    OF   PETITION. 

We  explicitly  disclaim  all  intention  to  imply  that  the  several 
disabilities  and  cruelties  we  are  specifying  are  of  universal 
application.  The  laws  of  some  States  in  relation  to  people  of 
color  are  more  wicked  than  others  ;  and  the  spirit  of  persecution 
is  not  in  every  place  equally  active  and  malignant.  In  none  of 
the  free  States  have  these  people  so  many  grievances  to  com 
plain  of  as  in  Ohio,  and  for  the  honor  of  our  country  we  rejoice 


CONDITION  OF  THE  FREE  PEOPLE  OF  COLOR.     379 

to  add,  that  in  no  other  State  in  the  Union  has  their  right  to 
petition"  for  a  redress  of  their  grievances  been  denied. 

On  the  14th  of  January,  1839,  a  petition  for  relief  from  certain 
legal  disabilities,  from  colored  inhabitants  of  Ohio,  was  presented 
to  the  popular  branch  of  the  Legislature,  and  its  rejection  was 
moved  by  George  H.  Flood.*  This  rejection  was  not  a  denial 
of  the  prayer,  but  an  expulsion  of  the  petition  itself,  as  an 
intruder  into  the  House.  "  The  question  presented  for  our 
decision,"  said  one  of  the  members,  "is  simply  this  —  Shall 
human  beings,  who  are  bound  by  every  enactment  upon  our 
statute  book,  be  permitted  to  request  the  Legislature  to  modify 
or  soften  the  laws  under  which  they  live?"  To  the  Grand 
Sultan,  crowded  with  petitions  as  he  traverses  the  streets  of 
Constantinople,  such  a  question  would  seem  most  strange  ;  but 
American  Democrats  can  exert  a  tyranny  over  men  who  have  no 
votes,  utterly  unknown  to  Turkish  despotism.  Mr.  Flood's 
motion  was  lost  by  a  majority  of  only  four  votes  ;  but  this  tri 
umph  of  humanity  and  republicanism  was  as  transient  as  it  was 
meagre.  The  next  day,  the  House,  by  a  large  majority,  resolved 

"  That  the  blacks  and  mulattoes  who  may  be  residents  within  this 
State,  have  no  constitutional  right  to  present  their  petitions  to  the 
General  Assembly  for  any  purpose  whatsoever,  and  that  any  reception 
of  such  petitions  on  the  part  of  the  General  Assembly  is  a  mere  act  of 
privilege  or  policy,  and  not  imposed  by  any  expressed  or  implied 
power  of  the  Constitution." 

The  phraseology  of  this  resolution  is  as  clumsy  as  its  assertions 
are  base  and  sophistical.  The  meaning  intended  to  be  expressed 
is  simply,  that  the  constitution  of  Ohio,  neither  in  terms  nor  by 
implication,  confers  on  such  residents  as  are  negroes  or  mulattoes, 
any  right  to  offer  a  petition  to  the  Legislature  for  any  object 
whatever;  nor  imposes  on  that  body  any  obligation  to  notice 
such  a  petition ;  and  whatever  attention  it  may  please  to  bestow 
upon  it,  ought  to  be  regarded  as  an  act  not  of  duty,  but  merely 
of  favor  or  expediency.  Hence  it  is  obvious,  that  the  principle 
on  which  the  resolution  is  founded  is,  that  the  reciprocal  right 
and  duty  of  offering  and  hearing  petitions  rests  solely  on  consti- 

*  It  is  sometimes  interesting  to  preserve  the  names  of  individuals  who 
have  perpetrated  bold  and  unusual  enormities. 


380 

tutional  enactment,  and  not  on  moral  obligation.     The  reception 
of  negro  petitions  is  declared  to  be  a  mere  act  of  privilege  or 
policy.     Now  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  a  principle  more  utterly 
subversive  of  all  the  duties  of  rulers,  the  rights  of  citizens,  and 
the  charities  of  private  life.     The  victim  of  oppression  or  fraud 
has  no  right  to  appeal  to  the  constituted  authorities  for  redress, 
>    nor  are  those  authorities  under  any  obligation  to  consider  the 
appeal ;    the  needy  and  unfortunate  have  no  right  to  implore 
!  the  assistance  of  their  more  fortunate  neighbors  ;  and  all  are  at 
I  liberty  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  cry  of  distress.     The  eternal 
f   and  immutable  principles  of  justice  and  humanity,  proclaimed 
by  Jehovah,  and  impressed  by  him  on  the  conscience  of  man, 
have  no  binding  force  on  the  Legislature   of  Ohio,  unless  ex 
pressly  adopted  and  enforced  by  the  State  constitution  ! 

But  as  the  Legislature  has  thought  proper  thus  to  set  at 
defiance  the  moral  sense  of  mankind,  and  to  take  refuge  behind 
the  enactments  of  the  constitution,  let  us  try  the  strength  of 
their  entrenchments.  The  words  of  the  constitution,  which  it  is 
pretended  sanction  the  resolution  we  are  considering,  are  the 
following,  viz. : — "  The  people  have  a  right  to  assemble  together 
in  a  peaceable  manner  to  consult  for  their  common  good,  to 
instruct  their  representatives,  and  to  apply  to  the  Legislature  for 
a  redress  of  grievances."  It  is  obvious  that  this  clause  confers 
no  rights,  but  is  merely  declaratory  of  existing  rights.  Still,  as 
the  right  of  the  people  to  apply  for  a  redress  of  grievances  is 
coupled  with  the  right  of  instructing  their  representatives,  and  as 
negroes  are  not  electors,  and  consequently  are  without  represen 
tatives,  it  is  inferred  that  they  are  not  part  of  the  people.  That 
Ohio  legislators  are  not  Christians  would  be  a  more  rational 
conclusion.  One  of  the  members  avowed  his  opinion  that  "  none 
but  voters  had  a  right  to  petition."  If,  then,  according  to  the 
principle  of  the  resolution,  the  constitution  of  Ohio  denies  the 
right  of  petition  to  all  but  electors,  let  us  consider  the  practical 
results  of  such  a  denial.  In  the  first  place,  every  female  in  the 
State  is  placed  under  the  same  disability  with  "  blacks  and  mu- 
lattoes.  No  wife  has  a  right  to  ask  for  a  divorce  —  no  daughter 
may  plead  for  a  father's  life.  Next,  no  man  under  twenty-one 


CONDITION  OF  THE  FREE  PEOPLE  OF  COLOR.     381 

years  —  no  citizen  of  any  age,  who  from  want  of  sufficient  resi 
dence,  or  other  qualification,  is  not  entitled  to  vote  —  no  individ 
ual  among  the  tens  of  thousands  of  aliens  in  the  State,  however 
oppressed  and  wronged  by  official  tyranny  or  corruption,  has  a 
right  to  seek  redress  from  the  representatives  of  the  people,  and 
should  he  presume  to  do  so,  may  be  told,  that,  like  "  blacks  and 
mulattoes,"  he  "  has  no  constitutional  right  to  present  his  petition 
to  the  General  Assembly  for  any  purpose  whatever."  Again, 
the  State  of  Ohio  is  deeply  indebted  to  the  citizens  of  other 
States,  and  also  to  the  subjects  of  Great  Britain,  for  money  bor 
rowed  to  construct  her  canals.  Should  any  of  these  creditors 
lose  their  certificates  of  debt,  and  ask  for  their  renewal ;  or 
should  their  interest  be  withheld,  or  paid  in  depreciated  currency, 
and  were  they  to  ask  for  justice  at  the  hands  of  the  Legislature, 
they  might  be  told,  that  any  attention  paid  to  their  request  must 
be  regarded  as  a  "  mere  act  of  privilege  or  policy,  and  not  im 
posed  by  any  expressed  or  implied  power  of  the  Constitution," 
for,  not  being  voters,  they  stood  on  the  same  ground  as  "  blacks 
and  mulattoes."  Such  is  the  folly  and  wickedness  in  which 
prejudice  against  color  has  involved  the  legislators  of  a  re 
publican  and  professedly  Christian  State  in  the  nineteenth 
century. 

4.    EXCLUSION  FROM  THE  ARMY  AND  MILITIA. 

The  Federal  Government  is  probably  the  only  one  in  the 
world  that  forbids  a  portion  of  its  subjects  to  participate  in  the 
national  defence,  not  from  any  doubts  of  their  courage,  loyalty, 
or  physical  strength,  but  merely  on  account  of  the  tincture 
of  their  skin !  To  such  an  absurd  extent  is  this  prejudice 
against  color  carried,  that  some  of  our  militia  companies  have 
occasionally  refused  to  march  to  the  sound  of  a  drum  when 
beaten  by  a  black  man.  To  declare  a  certain  class  of  the 
community  unworthy  to  bear  arms  in  defence  of  their  na 
tive  country,  is  necessarily  to  consign  that  class  to  general 
contempt. 

* 

33 


382  JAY'S  WORKS. 

5.    EXCLUSION    FROM    ALL    PARTICIPATION    IN    THE  ADMINIS 
TRATION  OF  JUSTICE. 

No  colored  man  can  be  a  judge,  juror,  or  constable.  Were 
the  talents  and  acquirements  of  a  Mansfield  or  a  Marshall  veiled 
in  a  sable  skin,  they  would  be  excluded  from  the  bench  of  the 
humblest  court  in  the  American  republic.  In  the  slave  States 
generally,  no  black  man  can  enter  a  court  of  justice  as  a  witness 
against  a  white  one.  Of  course  a  white  man  may,  with  perfect 
impunity,  defraud  or  abuse  a  negro  to  any  extent,  provided  he 
is  careful  to  avoid  the  presence  of  any  of  his  own  caste,  at  the 
execution  of  his  contract,  or  the  indulgence  of  his  malice.  We 
are  not  aware  that  an  outrage  so  flagrant  is  sanctioned  by  the 
laws  of  any  free  State,  with  one  exception.  That  exception  the 
reader  will  readily  believe  can  be  none  other  than  OHIO.  A 
statute  of  this  State  enacts,  "  that  no  black  or  mulatto  person  or 
persons  shall  hereafter  be  permitted  to  be  sworn,  or  give  evi 
dence  in  any  court  of  record  or  elsewhere,  in  this  State,  in  any 
cause  depending,  or  matter  of  controversy,  when  either  party  to 
the  same  is  a  WHITE  person ;  or  in  any  prosecution  of  the  State 
against  any  WHITE  person." 

We  have  seen  that  on  the  subject  of  petition  the  Legislature 
regards  itself  as  independent  of  all  obligation  except  such  as  is 
imposed  by  the  constitution.  How  mindful  they  are  of  the  re 
quirements  even  of  that  instrument,  when  obedience  to  them 
would  check  the  indulgence  of  their  malignity  to  the  blacks,  ap 
pears  from  the  7th  Section  of  the  8th  Article,  viz. — "  All  courts 
shall  be  open,  and  every  person,  for  any  injury  done  him  in  his 
lands,  goods,  person  or  reputation,  shall  have  remedy  by  due 
cour/se  of  law,  and  right  and  justice  administered  without  denial 
or  delay." 

Ohio  legislators  may  deny  that  negroes  and  mulattoes  are 
citizens,  or  people ;  but  they  are  estopped  by  the  very  words  of 
the  statute  just  quoted,  from  denying  that  they  are  "persons." 
Now,  by  the  constitution  every  person,  black  as  well  as  white, 
is  to  have  justice  administered  to  him  without  denial  or  delay. 
But  by  the  law,  while  any  unknown  white  vagrant  may  be  a 
witness  in  any  case  whatever,  no  black  suitor  is  permitted  to 


CONDITION  OF  THE  FREE  PEOPLE  OF  COLOR.     383 

offer  a  witness  of  his  own  color,  however  well  established  may 
be  his  character  for  intelligence  and  veracity,  to  prove  his  rights 
or  his  wrongs ;  and  hence  in  a  multitude  of  cases,  justice  is  de 
nied  in  despite  of  the  constitution ;  and  why  denied  ?  Solely 
from  a  foolish  and  wicked  prejudice  against  color. 

-     6.    IMPEDIMENTS  TO  EDUCATION. 

No  people  have  ever  professed  so  deep  a  conviction  of  the 
importance  of  popular  education  as  ourselves,  and  no  people  have 
ever  resorted  to  such  cruel  expedients  to  perpetuate  abject  ig 
norance.  More  than  one  third  of  the  whole  population  of  the 
slave  States  are  prohibited  from  learning  even  to  read,  and  in 
some  of  them,  free  men,  if  with  dark  complexions,  are  subject  to 
stripes  for  teaching  their  own  children.  If  we  turn  to  the  free 
States,  we  find  that  in  all  of  them,  without  exception,  the  preju 
dices  and  customs  of  society  oppose  almost  insuperable  obstacles 
to  the  acquisition  of  a  liberal  education  by  colored  youth.  Our 
academies  and  colleges  are  barred  against  them.  We  know 
there  are  instances  of  young  men  with  dark  skins  having  been 
received,  under  peculiar  circumstances,  into  northern  colleges ; 
but  we  neither  know  nor  believe,  that  there  have  been  a  dozen 
such  instances  within  the  last  thirty  years. 

Colored  children  are  very  generally  excluded  from  our  com 
mon  schools,  in  consequence  of  the  prejudices  of  teachers  and 
parents.  In  some  of  our  cities  there  are  schools  exclusively  for 
their  use,  but  in  the  country  the  colored  population  is  too  sparse 
to  justify  such  schools ;  and  white  and  black  children  are  rarely 
seen  studying  under  the  same  roof;  although  such  cases  do 
sometimes  occur,  and  then  they  are  confined  to  elementary 
schools.  Some  colored  young  men,  who  could  bear  the  expense, 
have  obtained  in  European  seminaries  the  education  denied 
them  in  their  native  land. 

It  may  not  be  useless  to  cite  an  instance  of  the  malignity  with 
which  the  education  of  the  blacks  is  opposed.  The  efforts  made 
in  Connecticut  to  prevent  the  establishment  of  schools  of  a 
higher  order  thau  usual  for  colored  pupils,  are  too  well  known 


384  JAY'S  WORKS. 

to  need  a  recital  here  ;  and  her  BLACK  ACT,  prohibiting  the  in 
struction  of  colored  children  from  other  States,  although  now 
expunged  from  her  statute  book  through  the  influence  of  aboli 
tionists,  will  long  be  remembered  to  the  opprobrium  of  her  citi 
zens.  We  ask  attention  to  the  following  illustration  of  public 
opinion  in  another  New  England  State. 

In  1834  an  academy  was  built  by  subscription  in  CANAAN, 
New  Hampshire,  and  a  charter  granted  by  the  Legislature  ;  and 
at  a  meeting  of  the  proprietors  it  was  determined  to  receive  all 
applicants  having  "  suitable  moral  and  intellectual  recommenda 
tions,  without  other  distinctions  ; "  in  other  words,  without  refer 
ence  to  complexion.  When  this  determination  was  made  known, 
a  town  meeting  was  forthwith  convened,  and  the  following  res 
olutions  adopted,  viz. : 

"  Resolved,  that  we  view  with  abhorrence  the  attempt  of  the  aboli 
tionists  to  establish  in  this  town  a  school  for  the  instruction  of  the  sable 
sons  and  daughters  of  Africa,  in  common  with  our  sons  and  daughters. 

"  Resolved,  that  we  will  not  associate  with,  nor  in  any  way  counte 
nance,  any  man  or  woman  who  shall  hereafter  persist  in  attempting  to 
establish  a  school  in  this  town  for  the  exclusive  education  of  blacks,  or 
for  their  education  in  conjunction  with  the  whites." 

The  frankness  of  this  last  resolve  is  commendable.  The 
inhabitants  of  Canaan,  assembled  in  legal  town  meeting,  deter 
mined,  it  seems,  that  the  blacks  among  them  should  in  future 
have  no  education  whatever ;  they  should  not  be  instructed  in 
company  with  the  whites,  neither  should  they  have  schools 
exclusively  for  themselves. 

The  /proprietors  of  the  academy  supposing,  in  the  simplicity 
of  their  hearts,  that  in  a  free  country  they  might  use  their  prop 
erty  in  any  manner  not  forbidden  by  law,  proceeded  to  open  their 
school,  and  in  the  ensuing  spring,  had  twenty-eight  white,  and 
fourteen  colored  scholars.  The  crisis  had  now  arrived  when  the 
cause  of  prejudice  demanded  the  sacrifice  of  constitutional 
liberty  and  of  private  property.  Another  town  meeting  was 
convoked,  at  which,  without  a  shadow  of  authority,  and  in  utter 
contempt  of  law  and  decency,  it  was  ordered,  that  the  academy 
should  be  forcibly  removed,  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to 
execute  the  abominable  mandate.  Due  preparations  were  made 


CONDITION  OP  THE  FREE  PEOPLE  OF  COLOR.     385 

for  the  occasion,  and  on  the  10th  of  August,  three  hundred  men 
with  about  two  hundred  oxen,  assembled  at  the  place,  and  taking 
the  edifice  from  off  its  foundation,  dragged  it  to  a  distance,  and 
left  it  a  ruin.  No  one  of  the  actors  in  this  high-handed  outrage 
was  ever  brought  before  a  court  of  justice  to  answer  for  this 
criminal  and  riotous  destruction  of  the  property  of  others. 

The  transaction  we  have  narrated  expresses  in  emphatic 
terms  the  deep  and  settled  hostility  felt  in  the  free  States,  to  the 
education  of  the  blacks.  The  prejudices  of  the  community  ren 
der  that*  hostility  generally  effective  without  the  aid  of  legal 
enactments.  Indeed,  some  remaining  regard  to  decency  and 
the  opinion  of  the  world,  has  restrained  the  Legislatures  of  the 
free  States,  with  one  exception,  from  consigning  these  unhappy 
people  to  ignorance  by  "decreeing  unrighteous  decrees,"  and 
"  framing  mischief  by  a  law."  Our  readers,  no  doubt,  feel  that 
the  exception  must  of  course  be  OHIO. 

We  have  seen  with  what  deference  Ohio  legislators  profess  to 
regard  their  constitutional  obligations  ;  and  we  are  now  to  con 
template  another  instance  of  their  shameless  violation  of  them. 
The  constitution  which  these  men  have  swrorn  to  obey  declares, 

"  No  LAWS  SHALL  BE  PASSED  to  prevent  the  poor  of  the  several 
townships  and  counties  in  this  State  from  an  equal  participation  in  the 
schools,  academies,  colleges,  and  universities  in  this  State,  which  are 
endowed  in  whole,  or  in  part,  from  the  revenue  arising  from  donations 
made  by  the  United  States,  for  the  support  of  colleges  and  schools  — 
and  the  door  of  said  schools,  academies,  and  universities  shall  be  open 
for  the  reception  of  scholars,  students,  and  teachers  of  every  grade, 

Without  ANY   DISTINCTION  OR    PREFERENCE  WHATEVER." 

Can  language  be  more  explicit  or  unequivocal  ?  But  have 
any  donations  been  made  by  the  United  States  for  the  support 
of  colleges  and  schools  in  Ohio  ?  Yes ;  by  an  Act  of  Congress, 
the  sixteenth  section  of  land  in  each  originally  surveyed  township 
in  the  State  was  set  apart  as  a  donation  for  the  express  purpose 
of  endowing  and  supporting  common  schools.  And  now,  how 
have  the  scrupulous  legislators  of  Ohio,  who  refuse  to  acknowl 
edge  any  other  than  constitutional  obligations  to  give  ear  to  the 
cry  of  distress — how  have  they  obeyed  this  injunction  of  the 
constitution  respecting  the  freedom  of  their  schools?  They 
enacted  a  law  in  1831,  declaring  that,  "  vvuen  any  appropriation 
33* 


386 

shall  be  made  by  the  directors  of  any  school  district,  from  the 
treasury  thereof,  for  the  payment  of  a  teacher,  the  school  in  such 
district  shall  be  open  "  —  to  whom  ?  —  "  to  scholars,  students, 
and  teachers  of  every  grade,  without  distinction  or  preference, 
whatever"  as  commanded  by  the  constitution?  Oh  no  !  — "  shall 
be  open  to  all  the  WHITE  children  residing  therein  !  "  Such 
is  the  impotency  of  written  constitutions,  where  a  sense  of  moral 
obligation  is  wanting  to  enforce  them. 

We  have  now  taken  a  review  of  the  Ohio  laws  against  free 
people  of  color.  Some  of  them  are  of  old,  and  others  of  recent 
date.  The  opinion  entertained  of  all  these  laws,  new  and  old, 
by  the  present  legislators  of  Ohio,  may  be  learned  by  a  resolu 
tion  adopted  in  January  last,  (1839)  by  both  houses  of  the 
Legislature. 

"  Resolved,  that  in  the  opinion  of  this  General  Assembly  it  is  unwise, 
impolitic,  and  inexpedient  to  repeal  any  law  now  in  force  imposing 
disabilities  upon  black  or  mulatto  persons,  thus  placing  them  upon  an 
equality  with  the  whites,  so  far  as  this  Legislature  can  do,  and  indirectly 
inviting  the  black  population  of  other  States  to  emigrate  to  this,  to 
the  manifest  injury  of  the  public  interest." 

The  best  comment  on  the  spirit  which  dictated  this  resolve 
is  an  enactment  by  the  same  Legislature,  abrogating  the  supreme 
law  which  requires  us  to  "  do  unto  others  as  we  would  they 
should  do  unto  us,"  and  prohibiting  every  citizen  of  Ohio  from 
harboring  or  concealing  a  fugitive  slave,  under  the  penalty  of 
fine  or  imprisonment.  General  obedience  to  this  vile  statute  is 
alone  wanting  to  fill  to  the  brim  the  cup  of  Ohio's  iniquity  and 
degradation.  She  hath  done  what  she  could  to  oppress  and 
crush  the  free  negroes  within  her  borders.  She  is  now  seeking 
to  rechain  the  slave  who  has  escaped  from  his  fetters. 

7.       IMPEDIMENTS    TO    RELIGIOUS     INSTRUCTION. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  here  on  the  laws  of  the  slave  States 
prohibiting  the  free  people  of  color  from  learning  to  read  the 
Bible,  and,  in  many  instances,  from  assembling  at  discretion  to 
worship  their  Creator.  These  laws,  we  are  assured,  are  indis 
pensable  to  the  perpetuity  of  that  "  peculiar  institution,"  which 
many  masters  in  Israel  are  now  teaching,  enjoys  the  sanction  of 


CONDITION  OF  THE  FREE  PEOPLE  OF  COLOR.     387 

Hm  who  "  will  have  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  to  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth,"  and  who  has  left  to  his  disciples  the 
injunction  "  search  the  Scriptures."  We  turn  to  the  free  States, 
in  which  no  institution  requires  that  the  light  of  the  glorious 
gospel  of  Christ  should  be  prevented  from  shining  on  any  por 
tion  of  the  population,  and  inquire  how  far  prejudice  here  sup 
plies  the  place  of  southern  statutes. 

The  impediments  to  education  already  mentioned,  necessarily 
render  the  acquisition  of  religious  knowledge  difficult,  and  in 
many  instances  impracticable.  In  the  northern  cities,  the  blacks 
have  frequently  churches  of  their  own,  but  in  the  country  they 
are  too  few  and  too  poor  to  build  churches  and  maintain  minis 
ters.  Of  course  they  must  remain  destitute  of  public  worship 
and  religious  instruction,  unless  they  can  enjoy  these  blessings 
in  company  with  the  whites.  Now  there  is  hardly  a  church  in 
the  United  States,  not  exclusively  appropriated  to  the  blacks, 
in  which  one  of  their  number  owns  a  pew,  or  has  a  voice  in  the 
choice  of  a  minister.  There  are  usually,  indeed,  a  few  seats  in 
a  remote  part  of  the  church,  set  apart  for  their  use,  and  in  which 
no  white  person  is  ever  seen.  It  is  surely  not  surprising,  under 
all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  that  these  seats  are  rarely 
crowded. 

Colored  ministers  are  occasionally  ordained  in  the  different 
denominations,  but  they  are  kept  at  a  distance  by  their  white 
brethren  in  the  ministry,  and  are  very  rarely  permitted  to  enter 
their  pulpits ;  and  still  more  rarely,  to  sit  at  their  tables, 
although  acknowledged  to  be  ambassadors  of  Christ.  The  dis 
tinction  of  caste  is  not  forgotten,  even  in  the  celebration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  and  seldom  are  colored  disciples  permitted  to  eat 
and  drink  of  the  memorials  of  the  Redeemer's  passion  till  after 
every  white  communicant  has  been  served. 

8.    IMPEDIMENTS    TO    HONEST    INDUSTRY. 

In  this  country  ignorance  and  poverty  are  almost  inseparable 
companions ;  and  it  is  surely  not  strange  that  those  should  be 
poor  whom  we  compel  to  be  ignorant.  The  liberal  professions 
are  virtually  sealed  against  the  blacks,  if  we  except  the  church, 


388  JAY'S  WORKS* 

and  even  in  that,  admission  is  rendered  difficult  by  the  obstacles 
placed  in  their  way  in  acquiring  the  requisite  literary  qualifica 
tions  ;  *  and  when  once  admitted,  their  administrations  are 
confined  to  their  own  color.  Many  of  our  most  wealthy  and 
influential  citizens  have  commenced  life  as  ignorant  and  as  pen 
niless  as  any  negro  who  loiters  in  our  streets.  Had  their  com 
plexion  been  dark,  notwithstanding  their  talents,  industry, 
•enterprise  and  probity,  they  would  have  continued  ignorant  and 
penniless,  because  the  paths  to  learning  and  to  wealth  would  then 
have  been  closed  against  them.  There  is  a  conspiracy,  embracing 
all  the  departments  of  society,  to  keep  the  black  man  ignorant 
and  poor.  As  a  general  rule,  admitting  few  if  any  exceptions, 
the  schools  of  literature  and  of  science  reject  him — the  counting 
house  refuses  to  receive  him  as  a  bookkeeper,  much  more  as 
a  partner  —  no  store  admits  him  as  a  clerk  —  no  shop  as  an 
apprentice.  Here  and  there  a  black  man  may  be  found  keeping 
a  few  trifles  on  a  shelf  for  sale ;  and  a  few  acquire,  as  if  by 
stealth,  the  knowledge  of  some  handicraft ;  but  almost  univers 
ally  these  people,  both  in  town  and  country,  are  prevented  by 
the  customs  of  society  from  maintaining  themselves  and  their 
families  by  any  other  than  menial  occupations. 

In  1836,  a  black  man  of  irreproachable  character,  and  who 
by  his  industry  and  frugality  had  accumulated  several  thousand 
dollars,  made  application  in  the  City  of  New  York  for  a  carman's 
license,  and  was  refused  solely  and  avowedly  on  account  of  his 

*  Of  the  truth  of  this  remark,  the  trustees  of  the  Episcopal  Theological 
Seminary  at  New  York,  lately  (June,  1839)  afforded  a  striking  illustration. 
A  young  man,  regularly  acknowledged  by  the  bishop  as  a  candidate  for 
orders,  and  in  consequence  of  such  acknowledgment  entitled,  by  an  express 
statute  of  the  seminary,  to  admission  to  its  privileges,  presented  himself  as 
a  pupil.  But  God  had  given  him  a  dark  complexion,  and  therefore  the  trus 
tees,  regardless  of  the  statute,  bai'red  the  doors  against  him,  by  a  formal 
and  deliberate  vote.  As  a  compromise  between  conscience  and  prejudice, 
the  professors  offered  to  give  him  private  instruction — to  do  in  secret  what 
they  were  ashamed  to  do  openly — to  confer  as  a  favor  what  he  was  entitled 
to  demand  as  a  right.  The  offer  was  rejected. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  of  the  trustees  who  took  an  active  part  against 
the  colored  candidate,  one  is  the  PRESIDENT  of  the  New  York  Colonization 
Society  ;  another  a  MANAGER,  and  a  third,  one  of  its  public  champions  ;  and 
that  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  who  wished  to  exclude  his  candidate  from 
the  theological  school  of  which  he  is  both  a  trustee  and  a  professor,  lately 
headed  a  recommendation  in  the  newspapers  for  the  purchase  of  a  packet 
ship  for  Liberia,  as  likely  to  "  render  far  more  efficient  than  heretofore,  the 
enterprise  of  colonization." 


CONDITION  OF  THE  FREE  PEOPLE  OF  COLOR.     389 

complexion !  "We  have  already  seen  the  effort  of  the  Ohio 
Legislature  to  consign  the  negroes  to  starvation  by  deterring 
others  from  employing  them.  Ignorance,  idleness,  and  vice, 
are  at  once  the  punishments  we  inflict  upon  these  unfortunate 
people  for  their  complexion  ;  and  the  crimes  with  which  we  are 
constantly  reproaching  them. 


9.    LIABILITY    TO    BE    SEIZED,    AND    TREATED    AS    SLAVES. 

An  able-bodied  colored  man  sells  in  the  southern  market  for 
from  eight  hundred  to  a  thousand  dollars ;  of  course  he  is  worth 
stealing.  Colonizationists  and  slave-holders,  and  many  northern 
divines,  solemnly  affirm,  that  the  situation  of  a  slave  is  far  pref 
erable  to  that  of  a  free  negro ;  hence  it  would  seem  an  act  of 
humanity  to  convert  the  latter  into  the  former.  Kidnapping 
being  both  a  lucrative  and  a  benevolent  business,  it  is  not  strange 
it  should  be  extensively  practised.  In  many  of  the  States  this 
business  is  regulated  by  law,  and  there  are  various  ways  in 
which  the  transmutation  is  legally  effected.  Thus,  in  South 
Carolina,  if  a  free  negro  "  entertains  "  a  runaway  slave,  it  may 
be  his  own  wife  or  child,  he  himself  is  turned  into  a  slave.  In 
1827,  a  free  woman  and  her  three  children  underwent  this  be 
nevolent  process,  for  entertaining  two  fugitive  children  of  six 
and  nine  years  old.  In  Virginia  all  emancipated  slaves  remain 
ing  twelve  months  in  the  State,  are  kindly  restored  to  their 
former  condition.  In  Maryland  a  free  negro  who  marries  a 
white  woman,  thereby  acquires  all  the  privileges  of  a  slave — 
and  generally,  throughout  the  slave  region,  including  the  District 
of  Columbia,  every  negro  not  known  to  be  free,  is  mercifully 
considered  as  a  slave,  and  if  his  master  cannot  be  ascertained^ 
he  is  thrown  into  a  dungeon,  and  there  kept,  till  by  a  public  sale 
a  master  can  be  provided  for  him.  But  often  the  law  grants  to 
colored  men,  knoivn  to  be  free,  all  the  advantages  of  slavery. 
Thus,  in  Georgia,  every  free  colored  man  coming  into  the  State, 
and  unable  to  pay  a  fine  of  one  hundred  dollars,  become  a  slave 
for  life  ;  in  Florida,  insolvent  debtors,  if  black,  are  SOLD  for 
tlio  benefit  of  tlieir  creditors  j  nnd  in  the  District  of  Columbia  a 


390  JAY'S  WORKS. 

free  colored  man,  thrown  into  jail  on  suspicion  of  being  a  slave 
and  proving  his  freedom,  is  required  by  law  to  be  sold  as  a 
slave,  if  too  poor  to  pay  his  jail  fees.  Let  it  not  be  supposed 
that  these  laws  are  all  obsolete  and  inoperative.  They  catch 
many  a  northern  negro,  who,  in  pursuit  of  his  own  business,  or 
on  being  decoyed  by  others,  ventures  to  enter  the  slave  region  ; 
and  who,  of  course,  helps  to  augment  the  wealth  of  our  southern 
brethren.  On  the  6th  of  March,  1839,  a  report  by  a  Committee 
was  made  to  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature,  in  which  are  given  the  names  of  seventeen  free 
colored  men  who  had  been  enslaved  at  the  South.  It  also  states 
an  instance  in  which  twenty-five  colored  citizens,  belonging  to 
Massachusetts,  were  confined  at  one  time  in  a  southern  jail,  and 
another  instance  in  which  seventy-five  free  colored  persons  from 
different  free  States  were  confined,  all  preparatory  to  their  sale 
as  slaves  according  to  law. 

The  facts  disclosed  in  this  report  induced  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature  to  pass  a  resolution  protesting  against  the  kidnap 
ping  laws  of  the  slave  States,  "  as  invading  the  sacred  rights  of 
citizens  of  this  commonwealth,  as  contrary  to  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  and  in  utter  derogation  of  that  great  principle 
of  the  common  law  which  presumes  every  person  to  be  innocent 
until  proved  to  be  guilty ; "  and  ordered  the  protest  to  be  for 
warded  to  the  Governors  of  the  several  States. 

But  it  is  not  at  the  South  alone  that  freemen  may  be  con 
verted  into  slaves  "  according  to  law."  The  Act  of  Congress 
respecting  the  recovery  of  fugitive  slaves,  affords  most  extraor 
dinary  facilities  for  this  process,  through  official  corruption  and 
individual  perjury.  By  this  Act,  the  claimant  is  permitted  to 
select  a  justice  of  the  peace,  before  whom  he  may  bring  or  send 
his  alleged  slave,  and  even  to  prove  his  property  by  affidavit. 
Indeed,  in  almost  every  State  in  the  Union,  a  slave-holder  may 
recover  at  law  a  human  being  as  his  beast  of  burden,  with  far 
less  ceremony  than  he  could  his  pig  from  the  possession  of  his 
neighbor.  In  only  three  States  is  a  man,  claimed  as  a  slave,  en 
titled  to  a  trial  by  jury.  At  the  last  session  of  the  New  York 
Legislature  a  bill  allowing  a  jury  trial  in  such  cases  was  passed 


CONDITION  OF  THE  FREE  PEOPLE  OF  COLOR.     391 

by  the  lower  House,  but  rejected  by  a  democratic  vote  in  the 
Senate,  democracy  in  that  State  being  avowedly  only  skin  deep, 
all  its  principles  of  liberty,  equality,  and  human  rights  depending 
on  complexion. 

Considering  the  wonderful  ease  and  expedition  with  which 
fugitives  may  be  recovered  by  law,  it  would  be  very  strange  if 
mistakes  did  not  sometimes  occur.  How  often  they  occur  cannot, 
of  course,  be  known,  and  it  is  only  when  a  claim  is  defeated,  that 
we  are  made  sensible  of  the  exceedingly  precarious  tenure  by 
which  a  poor  friendless  negro  at  the  North  holds  his  personal 
liberty.  A  few  years  since,  a  girl  of  the  name  of  Mary  Gilmore 
was  arrested  in  Philadelphia,  as  a  fugitive  slave  from  Maryland. 
Testimony  was  not  wanting  in  support  of  the  claim ;  yet  it  was 
most  conclusively  proved  that  she  was  the  daughter  of  poor  Irish 
parents — having  not  a  drop  of  negro  blood  in  her  veins ;  that  the 
father  had  absconded,  and  that  the  mother  had  died  a  drunkard 
in  the  Philadelphia  hospital,  and  that  the  infant  had  been  kindly 
received  and  brought  up  in  a  colored  family.  Hence  the  attempt 
to  make  a  slave  of  her.  In  the  spring  of  1839,  a  colored  man 
was  arrested  in  Philadelphia,  on  a  charge  of  having  absconded 
from  his  owner  twenty-three  years  before.  This  man  had  a  wife 
and  family  depending  upon  him,  and  a  home  where  he  enjoyed 
their  society ;  and  yet,  unless  he  could  find  witnesses  who  could 
prove  his  freedom  for  more  than  this  number  of  years,  he  was 
to  be  torn  from  his  wife,  his  children,  his  home,  and  doomed  for 
the  remainder  of  his  days  to  toil  under  the  lash.  Four  witnesses 
for  the  claimant  swore  to  his  identity,  although  they  had  not 
seen  him  before  for  twenty-three  years  !  By  a  most  extraordi 
nary  coincidence,  a  New  England  captain,  with  whom  this  negro 
had  sailed  twenty-nine  years  before,  in  a  sloop  from  Nantucket, 
happened  at  this  very  time  to  be  confined  for  debt  in  the  same 
prison  with  the  alleged  slave,  and  the  captain's  testimony,  to 
gether  with  that  of  some  other  witnesses,  who  had  known  the 
man  previous  to  his  pretended  elopement,  so  fully  established 
his  freedom,  that  the  court  discharged  him. 

Another  mode  of  legal  kidnapping  still  remains  to  be  described. 
By  the  Federal  Constitution,  fugitives  from  justice  are  to  be  de- 


392  JAY'S  WORKS. 

livered  up,  and  under  this  constitutional  provision,  a  free  negro 
may  be  converted  into  a  slave  without  troubling  even  a  justice  of 
the  peace  to  hear  the  evidence  of  the  captor's  claim.  A  fugitive 
slave  is  of  course  a  felon  ;  he  not  only  steals  himself,  but  also  the 
rags  on  his  back  which  belong  to  his  master.  It  is  understood 
he  has  taken  refuge  in  New  York,  and  his  master  naturally 
wishes  to  recover  him  with  as  little  noise,  trouble,  and  delay  as 
possible.  The  way  is  simple  and  easy.  Let  the  Grand  Jury 
indict  A.  B.  for  stealing  wearing  apparel,  and  let  the  indictment, 
with  an  affidavit  of  the  criminal's  flight,  be  forwarded  by  the 
Governor  of  the  State  to  his  Excellency  of  New  York,  with  a 
requisition  for  the  delivery  of  A.  13.  to  the  agent  appointed  to 
receive  him.  A  warrant  is,  of  course,  issued  to  "  any  constable 
of  the  State  of  New  York,"  to  arrest  A.  B.  For  what  pur 
pose  ?  —  to  bring  him  before  a  magistrate  where  his  identity  may 
be  established  ?  —  no,  but  to  deliver  him  up  to  the  foreign  agent. 
Hence,  the  constable  may  pick  up  the  first  likely  negro  he  finds 
in  the  street,  and  ship  him  to  the  South ;  and  should  it  be  found, 
on  his  arrival  on  the  plantation,  that  the  wrong  man  has  come, 
it  will  also  probably  be  found  that  the  mistake  is  of  no  conse 
quence  to  the  planter.  A  few  years  since,  the  Governor  of  New 
York  signed  a  warrant  for  the  apprehension  of  seventeen  Vir 
ginia  negroes,  as  fugitives  from  justice.*  Under  this  warrant, 
a  man  who  had  lived  in  the  neighborhood  for  three  years,  and 
had  a  wife  and  children,  and  who  claimed  to  be  free,  was  seized, 
on  a  Sunday  evening,  in  the  public  highway,  in  West  Chester 
County,  N.  Y.,  and  without  being  permitted  to  take  leave  of  his 
family,  was  instantly  handcuffed,  thrown  into  a  carriage,  and 
hurried  to  New  York,  and  the  next  morning  was  on  his  voyage 
to  Virginia. 

Free  colored  men  are  converted  into  slaves  not  only  by  law, 
but  also  contrary  to  law.  It  is,  of  course,  difficult  to  estimate  the 
extent  to  which  illegal  kidnapping  is  carried,  since  a  large  num- 

*  There  is  no  evidence  that  he  knew  they  were  negroes,  or  that  he  acted 
otherwise  than  in  perfect  good  faith.  The  alleged  crime  was  stealing  a  boat. 
The  real  crime,  it  is  said,  was  stealing  themselves  and  escaping  in  a  boat. 
The  most  horrible  abuses  of  these  warrants  can  only  be  prevented  by  requir 
ing  proof  of  identity  before  delivery. 


CONDITION  OF  THE  FREE  PEOPLE  OF  COLOR.     393 

ber  of  cases  must  escape  detection.  In  a  work  published  by 
Judge  Stroud,  of  Philadelphia,  in  1827,  he  states,  that  it  had 
been  ascertained  that  more  than  thirty  free  colored  persons,  mostly 
children,  had  been  kidnapped  in  that  city  within  the  last  two 

years.* 

10.       SUBJECTION    TO    INSULT   AND    OUTRAGE. 

The  feeling  of  the  community  towards  these  people,  and  the 
contempt  with  which  they  are  treated,  are  indicated  by  the  fol 
lowing  notice,  lately  published  by  the  proprietors  of  a  menagerie, 
in  New  York.  "  The  proprietors  wish  it  to  be  understood,  that 
people  of  color  are  "not  permitted  to  enter,  except  when  in  attend 
ance  upon  children  and  families"  For  two  shillings,  any  white 
scavenger  would  be  freely  admitted,  and  so  would  negroes,  pro 
vided  they  came  in  a  capacity  that  marked  their  dependence ; 
their  presence  is  offensive,  only  when  they  come  as  independent 
spectators,  gratifying  a  laudable  curiosity. 

Even  death,  the  great  leveller,  is  not  permitted  to  obliterate, 
among  Christians,  the  distinction  of  caste,  or  to  rescue  the  life 
less  form  of  the  colored  man  from  the  insults  of  his  white  breth 
ren.  In  the  porch  of  a  Presbyterian  Church,  in  Philadelphia* 
in  1837,  was  suspended  a  card,  containing  the  form  of  a  deed,  to 
be  given  to  purchasers  of  lots^n  a  certain  burial  ground,  and  to 
enhance  the  value  of  the  property,  and  to  entice  buyers,  the  fol 
lowing  clause  was  inserted  :  "  No  person  of  color,  nor  any  one 
who  has  been  the  subject  of  execution,  shall  be  interred  in  said 
lot." 

Our  colored  fellow-citizens,  like  others,  are  occasionally  called 
to  pass  from  one  place  to  another ;  and  in  doing  so  are  com 
pelled  to  submit  to  innumerable  hardships  and  indignities.  They 
are  frequently  denied  seats  in  our  stage  coaches ;  and  although 
admitted  upon  the  decks  of  our  steamboats,  are  almost  universally 
excluded  from  the  cabins.  Even  women  have  been  forced,  in 
cold  weather,  to  pass  the  night  upon  deck,  and  in  one  instance 

*  Stroud's  Sketch  of  the  Slave  Laws,  p.  94. 
34 


394  JAY'S  WORKS. 

the  wife  of  a  colored  clergyman  lost  her  life  in  consequence  of 
such  an  exposure. 

The  contempt  poured  upon  these  people  by  our  laws,  our 
churches,  our  seminaries,  our  professions,  naturally  invokes  upon 
their  heads  the  fierce  wrath  of  vulgar  malignity.  In  order  to 
exhibit  the  actual  condition  of  this  portion  of  our  population,  we 
will  here  insert  some  samples  of  the  outrages  to  which  they  are 
subjected,  taken  from  the  ordinary  public  journals. 

In  an  account  of  the  New  York  riots  of  1834,  the  Commercial 
Advertiser  says : 

"  About  twenty  poor  African  (native  American)  families,  have  had 
their  all  destroyed,  and  have  neither  bed,  clothing,  nor  food  remaining. 
Their  houses  are  completely  eviscerated,  their  furniture  a  wreck,  and 
the  ruined  and  disconsolate  tenants  of  the  devoted  houses  are  reduced 
to  the  necessity  of  applying  to  the  corporation  for  bread." 

The  example  set  in  New  York  was  zealously  followed  in  Phil 
adelphia. 

"  Some  arrangement,  it  appears,  existed  between  the  mob  and  the 
white  inhabitants,  as  the  dwelling-houses  of  the  latter,  contiguous  to 
the  residences  of  the  blacks,  were  illuminated  and  left  undisturbed, 
while  the  huts  of  the  negroes  were  singled  out  with  unerring  certainty. 
The  furniture  found  in  these  houses  was  generally  broken  up  and  de 
stroyed — beds  ripped  open  and  their  contents  scattered  in  the  streets. 

The  number  of  houses  assailed  was  not  less  than 

twenty.  In  one  house  there  was  a  corpse,  which  was  thrown  from  the 
coffin,  and  in  another  a  dead  infant  was  taken  out  of  ihe  bed,  and  cast 
on  the  floor,  the  mother  being  at  the  same  time  barbarously  treated."  Phil 
adelphia  Gazette. 

"  No  case  is  reported  of  an  attack  having  been  invited  or  provoked 
by  the  residents  of  the  dwellings  assailed  or  destroyed.  The  extent  of 
the  depredations  committed  on  the  three  evenings  of  riot  and  outrage 
can  only  be  judged  of  by  the  number  of  houses  damaged  or  destroyed. 
So  far  as  ascertained,  this  amounts  to  FORTY-FIVE.  One  of  the  houses 
assaulted  was  occupied  by  an  unfortunate  cripple,  who,  unable  to  fly 
from  the  fury  of  the  mob,  was  so  beaten  by  some  of  the  ruffians,  that 
lie  has  since  died  in  consequence  of  the  bruises  and  wounds  inflicted. 
.  .  .  .  For  the  last  two  days  the  Jersey  steamboats  have  been 
loaded  with  numbers  of  the  colored  population,  who,  fearful  their  lives 
were  not  safe  in  this,  determined  to  seek  refuge  in  another  State.  On 
the  Jersey  side,  tents  were  erected,  and  the  negroes  have  taken  up  a 
temporary  residence,  until  a  prospect  shall  be  offered  for  their  perpet 
ual  location  in  some  place  of  security  and  liberty."  National  Gazette. 


CONDITION  OF  THE  FREE  PEOPLE  OF  COLOR.     395 

The  facts' we  have  now  exhibited,  abundantly  prove  the  ex 
treme  cruelty  and  sinfulness  of  that  prejudice  against  color 
which  we  are  impiously  told  is  an  ORDINATION  OF  PROVIDENCE. 
Colonizationists,  assuming  the  prejudice  to  be  natural  and  invin 
cible,  propose  to  remove  its  victims  beyond  its  influence.  Abo 
litionists,  on  the  contrary,  remembering  with  the  Psalmist,  that 
"  It  is  HE  that  hath  made  us,  and  not  we  ourselves,"  believe  that 
the  benevolent  Father  of  us  all  requires  us  to  treat  with  justice 
and  kindness  every  portion  of  the  human  family,  notwithstanding 
any  particular  organization  he  has  been  pleased  to  impress  upon 
them.  Instead,  therefore,  of  gratifying  and  fostering  this  preju 
dice,  by  continually  banishing  from  our  country  those  against 
whom  it  is  directed,  abolitionists  are  anxious  to  destroy  the  preju 
dice  itself;  feeling,  to  use  the  language  of  another,  that  "It  is 
time  to  recognize  in  the  humblest  portions  of  society,  partakers 
of  our  nature  with  all  its  high  prerogatives  and  awful  destinies  — 
time  to  remember  that  our  distinctions  are  exterior  and  evanes 
cent,  our  resemblance  real  and  permanent  —  that  all  is  transient 
but  what  is  moral  and  spiritual  —  that  the  only  graces  we  can 
carry  with  us  into  another  world,  are  graces  of  divine  implanta 
tion,  and  that  amid  the  rude  incrustations  of  poverty  and  igno 
rance  there  lurks  an  imperishable  jewel  —  a  SOUL,  susceptible  of 
the  highest  spiritual  beauty,  destined,  perhaps,  to  adorn  the 
celestial  abodes,  and  to  shine  forever  in  the  mediatorial  diadem 
of  the  Son  of  God.  Take  heed  that  ye  despise  not  one  of  these 
little  ones" 


ADDRESS 


TO    THE    FRIENDS    OF    CONSTITUTIONAL    LIBERTY,    ON    THE 

VIOLATION    BY  THE  UNITED  STATES  HOUSE  OF 

REPRESENTATIVES    OF    THE    RIGHT 

OF    PETITION. 


1840. 


To  THE  FRIENDS  OF  CONSTITUTIONAL  LIBERTY:  — 

There  was  a  time,  fellow  citizens,  when  the  above  address 
would  have  included  the  PEOPLE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
But,  alas  !  the  freedom  of  the  press,  freedom  of  speech,  and  the 
right  of  petition,  are  now  hated  and  dreaded  by  our  Southern 
citizens,  as  hostile  to  the  perpetuity  of  human  bondage ;  while, 
by  their  "political  influence  in  the  Federal  Government,  they 
have  induced  members  at  the  North  to  unite  with  them  in  their 
sacrilegious  crusade  against  these  inestimable  privileges. 

On  the  28th  of  January  last,  the  House  of  Representatives, 
on  motion  of  Mr.  Johnson,  from  Maryland,  made  it  a  standing 
RULE  of  the  House  that  "  no  petition,  memorial,  resolution,  or 
other  paper,  praying  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  or  any  State  or  Territory  of  the  United  States,  in 
which  it  now  exists,  SHALL  BE  RECEIVED  BY  THE  HOUSE,  OR 

ENTERTAINED  IN  ANY  WAY  WHATEVER." 

Thus  has  the  RIGHT  OF  PETITION  been  immolated  in  the 

very  Temple  of  Liberty,  and  offered  up,  a  propitiatory  sacrifice 

to  the  demon  of  slavery.     Never  before  has  an  outrage  so 

unblushingly  profligate  been  perpetrated  upon  the  Federal  Con- 

34* 


398  JAY'S  WORKS. 

stitution.  Yet,  while  we  mourn  the  degeneracy  which  this 
transaction  evinces,  we  behold,  in  its  attending  circumstances, 
joyful  omens  of  the  triumph  which  awaits  our  struggle  with  the 
hateful  power  that  now  perverts  the  General  Government  into 
an  engine  of  cruelty  and  loathsome  oppression. 

Before  we  congratulate  you  on  these  omens,  let  us  recall  to 
your  recollection  the  steps  by  which  the  enemies  of  human 
rights  have  advanced  to  their  present  rash  and  insolent  defiance 
of  moral  and  constitutional  obligation. 

In  1831,  a  newspaper  was  established  in  Boston,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  disseminating  facts  and  arguments  in  favor  of  the  duty 
and  policy  of  immediate  emancipation.  The  Legislature  of 
Georgia,  with  all  the  recklessness  of  despotism,  passed  a  law, 
offering  a  reward  of  $5000,  for  the  abduction  of  the  editor,  and 
his  delivery  in  Georgia.  As  there  was  no  law  by  which  a  citi 
zen  of  Massachusetts  could  be  tried  in  Georgia,  for  expressing 
his  opinions  in  the  capital  of  his  own  State,  this  reward  was 
intended  as  the  price  of  BLOOD.  Do  you  start  at  the  sugges 
tion  ?  Remember  the  several  sums  of  $25,000,  of  $50,000,  and 
of  $100,000,  offered  in  Southern  papers  for  kidnapping  certain 
abolitionists.  Remember  the  horrible  inflictions  by  Southern 
Lynch  clubs.  Remember  the  declaration,  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  by  the  brazen-fronted  Preston,  that,  should  an  abolitionist 
be  caught  in  Carolina,  he  would  be  HANGED.  But,  as  the 
slave-holders  could  not  destroy  the  lives  of  the  abolitionists,  they 
determined  to  murder  their  characters.  Hence,  the  President  of 
the  United  States  was  induced,  in  his  Message  of  1835,  to  Con 
gress,  to  charge  them  with  plotting  the  massacre  of  the  Southern 
planters  ;  and  even  to  stultify  himself,  by  affirming  that,  for  this 
purpose,  they  were  engaged  in  sending,  by  mail,  inflammatory 
appeals  to  the  slaves  —  sending  papers  to  men  who  could  not 
read  them,  and  by  a  conveyance  through  which  they  could  not 
receive  them  !  He  well  knew  that  the  papers  alluded  to  were 
appeals  on  the  immorality  of  converting  men,  women,  and  chil 
dren,  into  beasts  of  burden,  and  were  sent  to  the  masters  for 
their  consideration.  The  masters  in  Charleston,  dreading  the 
moral  influence  of  these  appeals  on  the  conscience  of  the  slave- 


VIOLATION  OF  THE   RIGHT  OF  PETITION.  399 

holding  community,  forced  the  Post  Office,  and  made  a  bonfire 
of  the  papers.  The  Postmaster-General,  with  the  sanction  of 
the  President,  also  hastened  to  their  relief,  and,  in  violation  of 
oaths,  and  laws,  and  the  Constitution,  established  ten.  thousand 
censors  of  the  press,  each  one  of  whom  was  authorized  to 
abstract  from  the  mail  every  paper  which  lie  might  think  too 
favorable  to  the  rights  of  man. 

For  more  than  twenty  years,  petitions  have  been  presented 
to  Congress,  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Co 
lumbia.  The  right  to  present  them,  and  the  power  of  Congress 
to  grant  their  prayer,  were,  until  recently,  unquestioned.  But 
the  rapid  multiplication  of  these  petitions  alarmed  the  slave 
holders,  and,  knowing  that  they  tended  to  keep  alive  at  the 
North,  an  interest  in  the  slave,  they  deemed  it  good  policy  to 
discourage  and,  if  possible,  suppress  all  such  applications. 
Hence  Mr.  Pinckney's  famous  resolution,  in  183G,  declaring, 
"  that  all  petitions,  or  papers,  relating  in  any  ivay,  or  to  any 
extent  whatever  to  the  subject  of  slavery,  shall,  without  being 
printed  or  referred,  be  laid  on  the  table  ;  and  no  further  action 
whatever  shall  be  had  thereon  !  " 

The  peculiar  atrocity  of  this  resolution  was,  that  it  not  merely 
trampled  upon  the  rights  of  the  petitioners,  but  took  from  each 
member  of  the  House  his  undoubted  privilege,  as  a  legislator  of 
the  District,  to  introduce  any  proposition  he  might  think  proper, 
for  the  protection  of  the  slaves.  In  every  slave  State  there  are 
laws  affording,  at  least,  some  nominal  protection  to  these  unhappy 
beings  ;  but,  according  to  this  resolution,  slaves  might  be  flayed 
alive  in  the  streets  of  Washington,  and  no  representative  of  the 
people  could  offer  even  a  resolution  for  inquiry.  And  this  vile 
outrage  upon  constitutional  liberty  was  avowedly  perpetrated 
"  to  repress  agitation,  to  allay  excitement,  and  reestablish  har 
mony  and  tranquillity  among  the  various  sections  of  the  Union ! ! " 

But  this  strange  opiate  did  not  produce  the  stupefying  effects 
anticipated  from  it.  In  1836,  the  petitioners  were  only  37,000 
—  the  next  session  they  numbered  110,000.  Mr.  Hawes,  of 
Kentucky,  now  essayed  to  restore  tranquillity  by  gagging  the 
uneasy  multitude ;  but,  alas  !  at  the  next  Congress,  more  than 


400  JAY'S  WORKS. 

300,000  petitioners  carried  new  terror  to  the  hearts  of  the  slave 
holders.  The  next  anodyne  was  prescribed  by  Mr.  Patten,  of 
Virginia,  but  its  effect  was  to  rouse  from  their  stupor  some  of 
the  northern  Legislatures,  and  to  induce  them  to  denounce  his 
remedy  as  "  a  usurpation  of  power,  a  violation  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  subversive  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  govern 
ment,  and  at  war  with  the  prerogatives  of  the  people."  *  It 
was  now  supposed  that  the  people  must  be  drugged  by  a  northern 
man,  and  Atherton  was  found  a  fit  instrument  for  this  vile  pur 
pose  ;  but  the  dose  proved  only  the  more  nauseous  and  exciting 
from  the  foul  hands  by  which  it  was  administered. 

In  these  ,various  outrages,  although  all  action  on  the  petitions 
was  prohibited,  the  papers  themselves  were  received  -and  laid  on 
the  table,  and  therefore  it  was  contended,  that  the  right  of  petition 
had  been  preserved  inviolate.  But  the  slave-holders,  maddened 
by  the  failure  of  all  their  devices,  and  fearing  the  influence 
which  the  mere  sight  of  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of 
petitions  in  behalf  of  liberty,  would  exert,  and  taking  advantage 
of  the  approaching  presidential  election  to  operate  upon  the  sel 
fishness  of  some  northern  members,  have  succeeded  in  crushing 
the  right  of  petition  itself. 

That  you  may  be  the  more  sensible,  fellow  citizens,  of  the 
exceeding  profligacy  of  the  late  RULE,  and  of  its  palable  viola 
tion  of  both  the  spirit  and  the  letter  of  the  Constitution,  which 
those  who  voted  for  it  had  sworn  to  support,  sniffer  us  to  recall 
to  your  recollection  a  few  historical  facts. 

The  framers  of  the  Federal  Constitution  supposed  the  right 
of  petition  too  firmly  established  in  the  habits  and  affections  of 
the  people,  to  need  a  constitutional  guaranty.  Their  omission  to 
notice  it  aroused  the  jealousy  of  some  of  the  State  conventions, 
called  to  pass  upon  the  constitution.  The  Virginia  convention 
proposed,  as  an  amendment,  "  that  every  freeman  has  a  right  to 
petition,  or  apply  to  the  Legislature,  for  a  redress  of  grievances." 
And  this  amendment,  with  others,  was  ordered  to  be  forwarded 
to  the  different  States,  for  their  consideration.  The  conventions 
of  North  Carolina,  New  York,  and  Rhode  Island,  were  held 

*  Resolutions  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  April  and  May,  1838. 


VIOLATION    OF    THE    RIGHT    OP   PETITION.  401 

subsequently,  and,  of  course,  had  before  them  the  Virginia 
amendment.  The  North  Carolina  convention  adopted  %a  declar 
ation  of  rights,  embracing  the  very  words  of  the  proposed 
amendment ;  and  this  declaration  was  ordered  to  be  submitted 
to  Congress,  before  that  State  would  enter  the  Union.  The 
conventions  of  New  York  and  of  Rhode  Island  incorporated  in 
their  certificates  of  ratification,  the  assertion  that  "  Every  person 
has  a  right  to  petition  or  apply  to  the  Legislature  for  a  redress 
of  grievances  " ' —  using  the  Virginia  phraseology,  merely  substi 
tuting  the  word  person  for  freeman,  thus  claiming  the  right  of 
petition  even  for  slaves  ;  while  Virginia  and  North  Carolina 
confined  it  to  freemen. 

The  first  Congress,  assembled  under  the  Constitution,  gave 
effect  to  the  wishes  thus  emphatically  expressed,  by  proposing, 
as  an  amendment,  that  "  Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting 
an  establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise 
thereof,  or  abridging  the  freedom  of  the  press,  or  the  right  of  the 
people  peaceably  to  assemble,  and  to  petition  Government  for  a 
redress  of  grievances."  This  amendment  was  duly  ratified  by 
the  States,  and  when  members  of  Congress  swear  to  support  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  they  are  as  much  bound  by 
their  oath  to  refrain  from  abridging  the  right  of  petition,  as  they 
are  to  fulfil  any  other  constitutional  obligation.  And  will  the 
slave-holders  and  their  abettors  dare  to  maintain  that  they  have 
not  foresworn  themselves,  because  they  have  abridged  the  right 
of  the  people  to  petition  for  a  redress  of  grievances  by  a  RULE 
of  the  House,  and  not  by  a  law  ?  If  so,  they  may  by  a  RULE 
require  every  member,  on  taking  his  seat,  to  subscribe  to  the 
creed  of  a  particular  church,  and  then  call  their  Maker  to 
witness  that  they  are  guiltless  of  making  a  law  "respecting 
an  establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise 
thereof." 

The  right  to  petition  is  one  thing,  and  the  disposition  of  a 
petition  after  it  is  received,  is  another.  But  the  new  rule  makes 
no  disposition  of  the  petitions  ;  it  PROHIBITS  THEIR  RECEPTION; 
they  may  not  be  brought  into  the  legislative  chamber.  Hun- 


402  JAY'S  WORKS. 

dreds  of  thousands  of  the  people  are  debarred  all  access  to  their 
representatives,  for  the  purpose  of  offering  them  a  prayer. 

It  is  said  that  the  manifold  abominations  perpetrated  in  the 
District  are  no  grievances  to  the  petitioners,  and  therefore  they 
have  no  right  to  ask  for  their  removal.  But  the  right  guaran 
teed  by  the  Constitution,  is  a  right  to  ask  for  the  redress  of 
grievances,  whether  personal,  social,  or  moral.  And  who,  ex 
cept  a  slave-holder,  will  dare  to  contend  that  it  is  no  grievance 
that  our  agents,  our  representatives,  our  servants,  in  our  name 
and  by  our  authority,  enact  laws  erecting  and  licensing  markets 
in  the  Capital  of  the  Republic,  for  the  sale  of  human  beings, 
and  converting  free  men  into  slaves  for  no  other  crime  than 
that  of  being  too  poor  to  pay  United  States  officers  the  JAIL 
FEES  accruing  from  an  iniquitous  imprisonment  ? 

Again,  it  is  pretended  that  the  objects  prayed  for  are  palpa 
bly  unconstitutional,  and  that  therefore  the  petitions  ought  not  to 
be  received.  And  by  what  authority  are  the  people  deprived 
of  their  right  to  petition  for  any  object  which  a  majority  of 
either  House  of  Congress,  for  the  time  being,  may  please  to 
regard  as  unconstitutional  ?  If  this  usurpation  be  submitted  to, 
it  will  not  be  confined  to  abolition  petitions.  It  is  well  known 
that  most  of  the  slave-holders  now  insist,  that  all  protecting 
duties  are  unconstitutional,  and  that  on  account  of  the  tariff  the 
Union  was  nearly  rent  by  the  very  men  who  are  now  horrified 
by  the  danger  to  which  it  is  exposed  by  these  petitions  !  Should 
our  northern  manufacturers  again  presume  to  ask  Congress  to 
protect  them  from  foreign  competition,  the  southern  members  will 
find  a  precedent,  sanctioned  by  northern  votes,  for  a  rule  that 
"  no  petition,  memorial,  resolution,  or  other  paper,  praying  for 

the  IMPOSITION  OF  DUTIES  FOR  THE  ENCOURAGEMENT  OF  MAN 
UFACTURES,  shall  be  received  by  the  House,  or  entertained  in 
any  way  whatever." 

It  does  indeed  require  southern  arrogance  to  maintain  that, 
although  Congress  is  invested  by  the  Constitution  with  "  exclu 
sive  jurisdiction,  in  all  cases  whatsoever,"  over  the  District  of 
Columbia,  yet  that  it  would  be  so  palpably  unconstitutional  to 


VIOLATION    OF    THE    RIGHT    OF    PETITION.  403 

abolish  the  slave-trade,  and  to  emancipate  the  slaves  in  the 
District,  that  petitions  for  these  objects  ought  not  to  be  received. 
Yet  this  is  asserted  in  that  very  House,  on  whose  minutes  is 
recorded  a  resolution,  in  1816,  appointing  a  committee,  with 
power  to  send  for  persons  and  papers,  "  to  inquire  into  the  ex 
istence  of  an  inhuman  and  illegal  traffic  in  slaves,  carried  on,  in 
and  through  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  report  whether  any, 
and  what  means  are  necessary  for  putting  a  stop  to  the  same : " 
and  another,  in  1829,  instructing  the  Committee  on  the  District 
of  Columbia  to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  providing  by  law, 
"  for  the  gradual  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District." 

In  the.  very  first  Congress  assembled  under  the  Federal  Con 
stitution,  petitions  were  presented,  asking  its  interposition  for 
the  mitigation  of  the  evils,  and  final  abolition  of  the  African 
slave-trade,  and  also  praying  it,  as  far  as  it  possessed  the  power, 
to  take  measures  for  the  abolition  of  slavery.  These  petitions 
excited  the  wrath  and  indignation  of  many  of  the  slave-holding 
members,  yet  no  one  thought  of  refusing  to  receive  them.  They 
were  referred  to  a  select  committee,  at  the  instance  of  Mr. 
Madison  himself,  who  "  entered  into  a  critical  review  of  the 
circumstances  respecting  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and 
the  ideas  upon  the  limitation  of  the  powers  of  Congress,  to 
interfere  in  the  regulation  of  the  commerce  of  slaves,  and  showed 
that  they  undoubtedly  were  not  precluded  from  interposing  in 
their  importation  ;  and  generally  to  regulate  the  mode  in  which 
every  species  of  business  shall  be  transacted.  He  adverted  to 
the  western  country,  and  the  cession  of  Georgia,  in  which  Con 
gress  have  certainly  the  power  to  regulate  the  subject  of  slavery  ; 
which  shows  that  gentlemen  are  mistaken  in  supposing  that 
Congress  cannot  constitutionally  interfere  in  the  business  in  any 
degree  whatever.  He  was  in  favor  of  committing  the  petition, 
and  justified  the  measure  by  repeated  precedents  in  the  pro 
ceedings  of  the  House."  U.  S.  Gazette,  \ltliFeb.,  1790. 

Here  we  find  one  of  the  earliest  and  ablest  expounders  of 
the  Constitution,  maintaining  the  power  of  Congress  to  "  regu 
late  the  subject  of  slavery  "  in  the  national  territories,  and  urg 
ing  the  reference  of  abolition  petitions  to  a  special  committee. 


404  JAY'S  WORKS. 

The  committee  made  a  report,  for  which,  after  a  long  debate, 
was  substituted  a  declaration,  by  the  House,  that  Congress  could 
not  abolish  the  slave-trade  prior  to  the  year  1808,  but  had  a 
right  so  to  regulate  it  as  to  provide  for  the  humane  treatment  of 
the  slaves  on  the  passage  ;  and  that  Congress  could  not  inter 
fere  in  the  emancipation  or  treatment  of  slaves  in  the  States. 

This  declaration  gave  entire  satisfaction,  and  no  farther 
abolition  petitions  were  presented,  till  after  the  District  of 
Columbia  had  been  placed  under  the  "  exclusive  jurisdiction  " 
of  the  General  Government. 

You  all  remember,  fellow  citizens,  the  wide-spread  excite 
ment  which  a  few  years  since  prevailed  on  the  subject  of  Sux- 
DAY  MAILS.  Instead  of  attempting  to  quiet  the  agitation,  by 
outraging  the  rights  of  the  petitioners,  Congress  referred  the 
petitions  to  a  committee,  and  made  no  attempt  to  stifle  discus 
sion. 

Why,  then,  we  ask,  with  such  authorities  and  precedents 
before  them,  do  the  slave-holders  in  Congress,  regardless  of 
their  oaths,  strive  to  gag  the  friends  of  freedom,  under  pretence 
of  allaying  agitation  ?  Because  conscience  does  make  cowards 
of  them  all — because  they  know  the  accursed  system  they  are 
upholding  will  not  bear  the  light — because  they  fear,  if  these 
petitions  are  discussed,  the  abominations  of  the  American  slave- 
trade,  the  secrets  of  the  prison-houses  in  Washington  and  Alex 
andria,  and  the  horrors  of  the  human  shambles  licensed  by  the 
authority  of  Congress,  will  be  exposed  to  the  scorn  and  indigna 
tion  of  the  civilized  world. 

Unquestionably  the  late  RULE  surpasses,  in  its  profligate  con 
tempt  of  constitutional  obligation,  any  act  in  the  annals  of  the 
Federal  Government.  As  such  it  might  well  strike  every  pat 
riot  with  dismay,  were  it  not  that  attending  circumstances  teach 
us  that  it  is  the  expiring  effort  of  desperation.  When  we  reflect 
on  the  past  subserviency  of  our  northern  representatives  to  the 
mandates  of  the  slave-holders,  we  may  well  raise  on  the  present 
occasion,  the  shout  of  triumph,  and  hail  the  vote  on  the  recent 
RULE  as  the  pledge  of  a  glorious  victory.  Suffer  us  to  recall  to 
your  recollection  the  majorities  by  which  the  successive  attempts 


VIOLATION  OF  THE  RIGHT  OF  PETITION.  405 

to  crush  the  right  of  petition  and  the  freedom  of  debate  have 
been  carried. 

Pinckney's  Gag  was  passed  May,  1836,  by  a  majority  of  51 

Hawes's         " Jan.  1837, 58 

Patton's        " Dec.  1-837, 48 

Atherton's    « Dec.  1838, 48 

Johnson's      " Jan.  1840, 6 

Surely,  when  we  find  the  majority  against  us  reduced  from  58 
to  6,  we  need  no  new  incentive  to  perseverance. 

Another  circumstance  which  marks  the  progress  of  constitu 
tional  liberty,  is  the  gradual  diminution  in  the  number  of  our 
northern  serviles.  The  votes  from  the  free  States  in  favor  of  the 
several  gags  were  as  follows  : 

For  Pinckney's, 62 

For  Hawes's, 70 

For  Patton's, 52 

For  Atherton's, - 49 

For  Johnson's, 28 

There  is  also  another  cheering  fact  connected  with  the  passage 
of  the  RULE  which  deserves  to  be  noticed.  Heretofore  the 
slave-holders  have  uniformly,  by  enforcing  the  previous  ques 
tion,  imposed  their  several  gags  by  a  silent  vote.  On  the  present 
occasion  they  were  twice  baffled  in  their  efforts  to  stifle  debate, 
and  were,  for  days  together,  compelled  to  listen  to  speeches  on  a 
subject  which  they  have  so  often  declared  should  not  be  dis 
cussed. 

A  base  strife  for  southern  votes  has  hitherto,  to  no  small 
extent,  enlisted  both  the  political  parties  at  the  North  in  the 
service  of  the  slave-holders.  The  late  unwonted  independence 
of  northern  politicians,  and  the  deference  paid  by  them  to  the 
wishes  of  their  own  constituents,  in  preference  to  those  of  their 
southern  colleagues,  indicate  the  advance  of  public  opinion* 
No  less  than  forty-nine  northern  members  of  the  administration 
party  voted  for  the  Atherton  gag,  while  only  twenty-seven  dared 
to  record  their  names  in  favor  of  Johnson's ;  and  of  the  repre 
sentation  of  SIX  States,  every  vote  was  given  against  the  rule, 
without  distinction  of  party.  The  tone  in  which  opposite  politi- 
35 


406  JAY'S  WORKS. 

cal  journals  denounce  the  late  outrage  may  warn  the  slave-holders 
that  they  will  not  much  longer  hold  the  North  in  bonds.  The 
leading  administration  paper  in  the  city  of  New  York  regards 
the  RULE  with  "  utter  abhorrence ; "  while  the  official  paper  of  the 
opposition,  edited  by  the  State  printer,  trusts  that  the  names  of 
the  recreant  northerners  who  voted  for  it  may  be  "handed 
down  to  eternal  infamy  and  execration." 

The  advocates  of  abolition  are  no  longer  consigned  to  unmiti 
gated  contempt  and  obloquy.  Passing  by  the  various  living 
illustrations  of  our  remark,  we  appeal  for  our  proofs  to  the  dead. 
The  late  WILLIAM  LEGGETT,  the  editor  of  a  Democratic  Jour 
nal  in  the  city  of  New  York,  was  denounced,  in  1835,  by  the 
"  Democratic  Republican  General  Committee,"  for  his  abolition 
doctrines.  Far  from  faltering  in  his  course,  on  account  of  the 
censure  of  his  own  party,  he  exclaimed,  with  a  presentiment 
almost  amounting  to  prophecy,  "  The  stream  of  public  opinion 
now  sets  against  us,  but  it  is  about  to  turn,  and  the  regurgitation 
will  be  tremendous.  Proud  in  that  day  may  well  be  the  man 
who  can  float  in  triumph  on  the  first  refluent  wave,  swept  onward 
by  the  deluge  which  he  himself,  in  advance  of  his  fellows,  had 
largely  shared  in  occasioning.  Such  be  my  fate ;  and,  living 
or  dying,  it  will  in  some  measure  be  mine.  I  have  written  my 
name  in  ineffaceable  letters  on  the  abolition  record."  And  he 
did  live  to  behold  the  first  swelling  of  the  refluent  wave.  The 
denounced  abolitionist  was  honored  by  a  Democratic  President 
with  a  diplomatic  mission ;  and  since  his  death,  the  resolution 
condemning  him  has  been  EXPUNGED  from  the  minutes  of  the 
Democratic  committee. 

Of  the  many  victims  of  the  recent  awful  calamity  in  our 
waters,  what  name  has  been  most  frequently  uttered  by  the 
pulpit  and  the  press  in  the  accents  of  lamentation  and  panegyric  ? 
On  whose  tomb  have  freedom,  philanthropy,  and  letters  been 
invoked  to  strew  their  funeral  wreaths  ?  All  who  have  heard 
of  the  loss  of  the  Lexington  are  familiar  with  the  name  of 
CHARLES  FOLLEN.  And  who  was  he  ?  One  of  the  men  offi 
cially  denounced  by  President  Jackson  as  a  gang  of  miscreants, 
plotting  insurrection  and  murder  —  and  recently  a  member 


VIOLATION    OF   THE    RIGHT   OP   PETITION.  407 

of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery 
Society. 

Let  us  then,  fellow-citizens,  in  view  of  all  these  things,  thank 
God  and  take  courage.  We  are  now  contending,  not  merely  for 
the  emancipation  of  our  unhappy  fellow-men,  kept  in  bondage 
under  the  authority  of  our  own  representatives  —  not  merely  for 
the  overthrow  of  the  human  shambles  erected  by  Congress  on 
the  national  domain  —  but  also  for  the  preservation  of  those 
great  constitutional  rights  which  were  acquired  by  our  fathers, 
and  are  now  assailed  by  the  slave-holders  and  their  northern 
auxiliaries.  That  you  may  remember  these  auxiliaries  and 
avoid  giving  them  new  opportunities  of  betraying  your  rights, 
we  annex  a  list  of  their  dishonored  names. 

The  following  twenty-eight  members  from  the  free  States 
voted  in  the  affirmative  on  the  recent  GAG  RULE. 

MAINE. 

Virgil  D.  Parris,  Albert  Smith. 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

Charles  G.  Atherton,  Ira  A.  Eastman, 

Edmund  Burke,  Tristram  Shaw. 

NEW  YORK. 

Nehemiah  H.  Earle,  James  de  la  Montayne, 

John  Fine,  John  H.  Prentiss, 

Nathaniel  Jones,  Theron  R.  Strong. 
Governeur  Kemble, 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

John  Davis,  George  M'Cullough, 

Joseph  Fornance,  David  Petriken, 

James  Gerry,  William  S.  Ramsay. 

OHIO. 

D.  P.  Leadbetter,  George  Sweeney, 

William  Medill,  Jonathan  Taylor, 

Isaac  Parrish,  John  B.  Weller. 

INDIANA. 

John  Davis,  George  H.  Proffit. 

ILLINOIS. 
John  Reynolds. 


408  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Let  us  turn  to  our  more  immediate  representatives,  and,  we 
trust,  more  faithful  servants.  Our  State  Legislatures  will  not 
refuse  to  hear  our  prayers.  Let  us  petition  them  immediately 
to  rebuke  the  treason  by  which  the  Constitution  has  been  sur 
rendered  into  the  hands  of  the  slave-holders ;  let  us  implore 
them  to  demand  from  Congress,  in  the  name  of  the  free  States, 
that  they  shall  neither  destroy  nor  abridge  the  right  of  peti 
tion,  —  a  right  without  which  our  government  would  be  con 
verted  into  a  despotism. 

We  call  on  you,  fellow-citizens  of  every  religious  faith  and 
party  name,  to  unite  with  us  in  guarding  the  citadel  of  our 
country's  freedom.  If  there  are  any  who  will  not  cooperate 
with  us  in  laboring  for  the  emancipation  of  the  slave,  surely 
there  are  none  who  will  stand  aloof  from  us  while  contending 
for  the  liberty  of  themselves,  their  children,  and  their  children's 
children. 

To  the  rescue,  then,  fellow  citizens  !  and,  trusting  in  HIM 
without  whom  all  human  effort  is  weakness,  let  us  not  doubt 
that  our  faithful  endeavors  to  preserve  the  rights  HE  has  given 
us,  will,  through  His  blessing,  be  crowned  with  success. 

NEW  YORK,  FEBRUARY  13,  1840. 


INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS 

TO  THE  REPROOF  OF  THE  AMERICAN  CHURCH  CONTAINED  IN 

THE  RECENT  "  HISTORY  OF  THE  PROTESTANT 

EPISCOPAL  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA,"  BY 

THE  BISHOP  OF  OXFORD. 


1846. 


IT  is  not  probable  that  the  reader  has  ever  seen  the  History 
mentioned  in  our  title.  That  a  history  of  the  American  Church, 
from  its  earliest  date  down  to  the  death  of  Bishop  White,  writ 
ten  by  a  dignitary  of  the  mother  Church,  distinguished  alike  by 
his  honored  name  and  elevated  rank,  should  be  almost  un 
known  in  this  country,  is  a  singular  and  very  peculiar  fact.  No 
people  are  more  sensitive  than  ourselves  to  the  opinions  of  for 
eigners  ;  and  American  Episcopalians  naturally  feel  much  inter 
est  in  the  views  entertained  of  them  by  their  English  brethren- 
Indeed,  the  interest  is  not  confined  to  such  views,  but  extends  to 
whatever  affects  the  English  Church.  The  parties  which  agitate 
the  establishment  are  reflected  in  our  controversies ;  and  the 
tracts  and  volumes  issued  by  the  theological  combatants  on  the 
other  side  of  the  water,  are  republished  and  eagerly  perused  on 
this.  Yet  here  is  a  history  of  ourselves,  in  no  small  degree  eulo 
gistic,  and  on  various  accounts  claiming  our  attention,  which  has 
been  virtually  suppressed. 

It  is  indeed  true,  that  as  soon  as  the  book  reached  our  shores, 
one  or  two  of  our  "  enterprising  publishers"  announced  their  in 
tention  of  reprinting  it,  and  one  of  the  proposed  editions  was  to 
35* 


410  JAY'S  WORKS. 

have  been  introduced  to  the  notice  of  the  Church  under  the 
auspices  of  a  RIGHT  REVEREND  editor.  But  these  announce 
ments  have  been  followed  by  "  expressive  silence."  More  than 
twelve  months  have  elapsed,  and  the  Church  is  still  without  an 
American  copy  of  the  History.  This  concealment  of  Dr.  Wil- 
berforce's  work  is  obviously  intentional,  and  not  accidental.  The 
very  title  of  the  book  and  the  name  of  the  author  would  have 
secured  a  rapid  sale  for  the  reprint.  Some  weighty  motive  must 
have  induced  our  publishers  to  abandon  their  original  intention, 
at  the  sacrifice  of  pecuniary  interest.  The  motive  is  obvious, 
and  probably  one  or  more  southern  bishops  have  exerted  their 
influence.  The  author  of  the  History,  in  the  course  of  his  work, 
advances  certain  doctrines  on  the  subject  of  SLAVERY,  and  of 
CASTE  IN  THE  CHURCH,  which  it  is  thought  inconvenient  to 
discuss,  and  which  cannot  be  admitted  in  this  Republic  without 
sealing  the  condemnation  of  almost  every  Christian  sect  among 
us,  and  overwhelming  our  own  Church  with  shame  and  confu 
sion.  There  are,  it  is  to  be  feared,  but  few  among  our  twelve 
hundred  clergymen,  who,  on  reading  the  History,  would  not  find 
their  consciences  whispering,  "Thou  art  the  man,"  and  who 
would  not  be  anxious  to  conceal  the  volume  from  their  parishion 
ers.  Hence  its  suppression. 

It  is  common  to  personify  the  Church,  and  to  speak  of  her  as 
of  some  spotless  celestial  being ;  and  yet  she,  in  fact,  consists  of 
her  clerical  and  lay  members,  each  one  of  whom  must  personally 
answer  at  the  bar  of  Christ  for  his  participation  in  every  sin 
committed  by  the  Church.  Surely,  it  would  be  more  becoming 
Christian  men  to  inquire  how  far  they  are  individually  guilty  of 
the  offences  charged  upon  them  by  Bishop  Wilberforce,  than  to 
endeavor  to  stifle  investigation,  by  burying  in  oblivion  the  faithful 
and  Christain  rebuke  of  their  English  brother. 

Religious  establishments  tend  to  render  the  clergy  obsequious 
to  the  civil  ruler,  and  our  voluntary  system  tempts  them  to  do 
homage  to  the  most  capricious  and  irresponsible  of  all  tyrants, 
the  will  of  the  multitude.  Let  us  see  what  true  and  faithful 
allegiance  our  "  Primitive  and  Apostolic  Church"  has  borne  to 
this  American  despot. 


REPROOF    OF    THE     AMERICAN    CHURCH.  411 

On  the  21st  of  August,  1831,  occurred  the  negro  insurrection 
and  massacre  at  Southampton,  Virginia.  This  disastrous  event 
necessarily  directed  public  attention,  both  at  the  North  and  the 
South,  to  the  subject  of  slavery.  In  one  portion  of  the  Union } 
stronger  fetters  were  forged  for  the  bondman,  and  greater  efforts 
made  to  banish  to  Africa  the  free  colored  man,  whose  presence 
it  was  supposed  quickened  the  aspirations  of  the  slave  for  free 
dom.  In  the  other  portion,  this  insurrection  impressed  on  a  few 
pious  and  reflecting  minds  a  conviction  both  of  the  moral  and 
political  evils  of  slavery,  and  of  the  duty  of  combined  action  for 
its  total  abolition.  In  1832  the  New  England  Anti-Slavery  So 
ciety  was  formed,  and  the  succeeding  year  witnessed  the  organi 
zation  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society.  Auxiliary  asso 
ciations  sprang  rapidly  into  being,  funds  were  liberally  bestowed, 
presses  were  established,  and  publications  portraying  the  abom 
inations  of  the  system  were  abundantly  scattered  throughout 
the  land. 

This  agitation  both  alarmed  and  irritated  the  slave-holders ; 
and  while  on  the  one  hand  they  endeavored  to  intimidate  the 
abolitionists  by  their  murderous  violence,  they  appealed  to  the 
selfish  passions  of  the  northern  community,  by  promising  their 
votes  and  their  trade  to  such  only  as  would  aid  in  suppressing 
the  discussion  of  slavery.  Immediately,  our  contending  factions 
and  our  commercial  cities  rivalled  each  other  in  demonstrations 
of  sympathy  for  their  "  southern  brethren,"  and  of  abhorrence 
for  abolitionists.  The  clergy,  yielding  to  the  blast,  generally 
observed  a  prudent  silence,  while  a  few,  to  prove  their  freedom 
from  fanaticism,  assailed  the  abolitionists  for  their  violence  and 
rashness,  protesting,  however,  against  being  considered  the  ad 
vocates  of  slavery  "  in  the  abstract." 

On  the  clergy  of  the  South,  however,  a  more  onerous  task  was 
imposed.  The  northern  movement  was  a  religious  one,  impelled 
by  a  belief  of  the  sinfulness  of  slavery.  Hence  it  became  im 
portant  that  southern  consciences  should  be  encased  in  mail,  im 
penetrable  to  anti-slavery  missiles.  The  fabrication  of  such  a 
panoply  was  consigned  to  the  ministers  of  Christ,  and  significant 
hints  were  given  them  that  they  must  not  shrink  from  the  work. 


412  JAY'S  WORKS. 

A  meeting  of  slave-holders  in  Mississippi,  after  resolving  that 
any  individual  who  should  circulate  anti-slavery  papers  in  the  State 
"is  justly  worthy,  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man,  of  IMMEDIATE 
DEATH,"  voted,  "  that  the  CLERGY  of  the  State  of  Mississippi  be 
hereby  recommended  at  once  to  take  a  stand  upon  this  subject, 
and  that  their  further  silence  in  relation  to  this  subject  (slavery) 
will,  in  our  opinion,  be  subject  to  serious  censure." 

This  pastoral  admonition  from  the  Lynchers  was  received  with 
due  reverence  by  those  to  whom  it  was  directed.  Presently  two 
Mississippi  Presbyteries  passed  resolutions  in  favor  of  the  Chris 
tian  character  of  slavery.  A  Mississippi  divine  published  an 
elaborate  vindication  of  the  system,  and  a  Methodist  periodical 
in  the  State  announced  that  it  would  "  recognize  the  right  of  man 
to  hold  property  in  man." 

In  other  slave  States  the  clergy  were  suddenly  aroused  to  a 
new  energy  in  vindicating  the  divine  institution  of  human  bond 
age.  Presbyteries,  Methodist  conferences,  Baptist  associations, 
individual  ministers,  were  busily  at  work  descanting  on  the  sin 
of  Ham,  and  the  curse  pronounced  on  Canaan,  discussing  He 
brew  servitude,  and  proving  that  negro  slavery  was  not  forbid 
den  in  the  New  Testament.  As  a  specimen  of  the  fuhninations 
launched  by  some  of  these  servants  of  the  Most  High  against  ab 
olitionists,  we  may  cite  the  peroration  of  an  address  to  a  meeting 
of  slave-holders  in  South  Carolina  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Postell,  of 
the  Methodist  Church.  "Shun  abolition  as  you  would  the 
DEVIL.  Do  your  duty  as  citizens  and  Christians,  and  in  heaven 
you  will  be  rewarded,  and  delivered  from  abolitionism." 

In  this  mighty  rivalry  in  preaching  smooth  things  to  the  slave 
holders,  "  the  sects  "  were  not  permitted  to  gain  a  triumph.  On 
the  27th  of  November,  1836,  the  Rev.  George  W.  Freeman, 
after  morning  service,  ascended  the  pulpit  of  Christ  Church, 
Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  and  announced  to  his  delighted  hear 
ers  the  good  news  that  the  slavery  of  white  men.and  of  black 
men,  of  the  wise  and  of  the  simple,  of  the  learned  and  of  the 
ignorant,  was  sanctioned  by  God,  and  approved  by  Jesus  Christ 
and  his  holy  apostles.  This  commissioned  ambassador  of  the 
Redeemer  proclaimed,  "  THAT  NO  MAN  NOR  SET  OF  MEN  IN  OUR 


REPROOF    OF    THE    AMERICAN    CHURCH.  413 

DAY,  UNLESS    THEY  CAN    PRODUCE  A    NEW    REVELATION    FROM 

HEAVEN,  ARE  ENTITLED  TO  PRONOUNCE  SLAVERY  WRONG  ;  and 

that  SLAVERY   AS    IT  EXISTS  AT    THE    PRESENT    DAY    IS  AGREE 
ABLE  TO  THE  ORDER  OF  DlVINE  PROVIDENCE." 

The  fact  that  any  institution  involves  duties,  proves  its  law 
fulness,  since  no  duty  can  attach  to  a  sinful  practice.  Hence 
our  preacher,  after  employing  the  morning  of  the  Lord's  day  in 
expounding  the  divine  rights  of  the  slave-holders,  devoted  the 
afternoon  of  the  same  holy  time  in  proclaiming  their  duties. 
The  slave-holder  was  reminded  that  he  was  under  a  moral  obli 
gation  to  punish  his  slaves  when  they  deserved  punishment ;  but 
he  must  not  be  too  severe,  nor  chastise  when  in  a  passion ;  nor 
ought  he  to  overwork  them.  He  is  bound,  moreover,  to  have  the 
slave  children  baptized,  and  orally  taught  to  say  the  Creed,  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  Ten  Commandments.  "  It  is  not  neces 
sary,"  said  the  man  of  God,  "  that  they  should  be  taught  to  read ; " 
but,  nevertheless,  the  master  was  declared  to  be  as  respon 
sible  for  the  souls  of  his  slaves  as  for  those  of  his  own  children ! 
Such  are  the  duties  which  spring  from  this  Scriptural  institu 
tion  ;  duties  which,  fortunately  for  the  master's  convenience, 
involve  no  regard  for  the  marriage  of  his  slaves,  no  respect  for 
their  conjugal  or  parental  rights,  and  impose  no  restrictions  on 
the  sale  of  men,  women,  and  children  in  the  market ;  at  least,  no 
obligations  of  this  sort  were  adverted  to  by  the  preacher. 

These  two  sermons  certainly  formed  the  most  acceptable 
offering  which  any  clergyman  had  yet  laid  on  the  altar  of  sla 
very.  The  hints  about  the  bondage  of  white  men,  the  necessity 
of  a  new  revelation,  before  slavery  could  be  pronounced  wrong, 
and  the  connection  of  religious  duties  with  the  institution,  could 
not  fail  of  convincing  the  slave-holder,  that  in  the  EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH  he  would  find  an  asylum  from  the  taunts  and  reproaches 
of  the  civilized  world ;  that  from  her  altars  he  could  gather 
balm  for  his  wounded  conscience,  and  that  in  her  courts,  he 
could,  without  distraction,  form  his  schemes  of  traffic  in  human 
beings,  and  forge  the  chains  by  which  they  were  to  be  held  in 
subjection.  It  was,  of  course,  important  that  slave-holders  gen 
erally  should  participate  in  the  joyful  intelligence  imparted  to 

I 


414  JAY'S  WORKS. 

the  congregation  of  Christ  Church.  The  news  might  be  spread 
by  the  press,  but  what  assurance  could  be  given  that  the  gratifying 
declarations  made  by  Mr.  Freeman,  a  private  and  obscure  Pres 
byter,  were  authorized  by  competent  ecclesiastical  authority  ? 
The  sermons  were  published  under  the  imposing  title  of  "  THE 
RIGHTS  AND  DUTIES  OF  SLAVE-HOLDERS,"  and  bore  the  follow 
ing  imprimatur  from  the  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  : 

"  KALEIGH,  Nov.  30,  1836. 

"  Rev.  and  Dear  Brother, — I  listened  with  most  unfeigned  pleasure 
to  the  discourses  delivered  last  Sunday,  on  the  character  of  slavery 
and  the  duties  of  masters.  And  as  I  learn  a  publication  of  them  is 
solicited,  I  beg,  from  a  conviction  of  their  being  urgently  called  for 
at  the  present  time,  that  you  will  not  withhold  your  consent. 
"  With  high  regard,  your  affectionate  friend, 

and  Brother  in  the  Lord, 

"L.  S.  IVES. 
"  To  the  Rev.  GEORGE  W.  FREEMAN." 

This  letter  was  obviously  written,  not  for  its  professed  pur 
pose  of  overcoming  Mr.  Freeman's  reluctance  to  appear  in  print, 
but  to  let  the  slave-holders  of  North  Carolina  know,  that  al 
though  their  bishop  was  a  northern  man,  his  conscience  was 
thoroughly  acclimated  ;  and  that  bold  and  startling  as  were  the 
doctrines  of  the  Raleigh  preacher,  they  would  be  maintained  in 
all  their  length  and  breadth  by  Episcopal  authority.  The 
CHURCH  in  North  Carolina,  by  this  authoritative  publication, 
far  exceeded  all  the  "  sects,"  in  the  slave  region,  in  her  fearless 
championship  of  slavery  in  the  "  abstract,"  and  "  as  it  exists  at 
the  present  day."  But  the  diocese  was  not  permitted  long  to 
enjoy  this  proud  preeminence.  Her  sister  of  South  Carolina 
quickly  shared  it  with  her.  The  Society  for  "  the  Advancement 
of  Christianity,"  (!)  consisting  of  clergymen  and  laymen,  with 
the  Bishop  at  their  head,  seized  upon  Freeman's  pamphlet,  and 
reprinted  it,  imprimatur  and  all,  as  a  religious  tract  for  gratui 
tous  distribution. 

But  there  was  still  one  circumstance,  which,  in  times  of  alarm 
and  despondency,  was  calculated  to  weaken  the  confidence  of 
the  slave-holder  in  the  strength  and  permanency  of  the  fortress 
which  had  thus  kindly  opened  its  gates  to  receive  him.  Most 


REPROOF    OF    THE     AMERICAN    CHURCH.  415 

of  the  religious  denominations  of  the  South  were  connected  with 
their  northern  brethren  by  general  ecclesiastical  judicatories. 
Already  had  alarming  discussions  occurred  in  the  Presbyterian 
Assembly,  and  the  Methodist  Conference,  and  the  Baptist  Mis 
sion  Board,  and  it  was  painfully  apparent  that  in  these  bodies 
"  the  rights  and  duties  of  slave-holders  "  were  viewed  in  very 
different  colors  from  the  glowing  tints  in  which  Freeman  had 
painted  them.  The  Episcopal  Church  at  the  South  was  subject 
to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  GENERAL  CONVENTION,  and  what 
security  could  be  given  that  a  body  embracing  northern  as  well 
as  southern  delegates,  would  not  repudiate  the  doctrines  of  the 
Raleigh  sermons  ?  Lynch  law  could  indeed  control  the  southern 
pulpit  as  well  as  the  southern  press ;  but  the  consciences  and 
the  characters  of  the  slave-holders  were  assailed  from  the  North. 
There  the  Dissenters  were  gradually  abandoning  the  cause  of 
human  bondage.  Under  the  strong  pressure  of  public  opinion, 
and  in  utter  contempt  of  the  well-known  sentiments  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  indeed  of  the  moral  sense  of  Christen 
dom,  could  it  be  hoped  that  the  northern  section  of  the  Episco 
pal  Church  would,  in  General  Convention,  tolerate,  much  less 
approve  of  the  extreme,  ultra  pro-slavery  views  of  the  Rev. 
George  W.  Freeman  ? 

All  questions  of  this  sort  were  most  explicitly  answered  by 
the  last  Convention,  as  appears  by  an  extract  from  the  minutes 
of  the  House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Delegates  : 

"  The  following  message  was  received :  '  House  of  Bishops,  Oct. 
22,  1844.  The  House  of  Bishops  inform  the  House  of  Clerical  and  Lay 
Deputies,  that  they  have  nominated  the  REV.  GEORGE  W.  FREEMAN, 
I).  D.,  rector  of  Immanuel  Church,  Delaware,  a  missionary  BISHOP, 
to  exercise  Episcopal  functions  in  the  State  of  Arkansas,  and  in  the 
Indian  Territory,  south  of  36  1-2  degrees  of  parallel  of  latitude, 
and  to  exercise  Episcopal  supervision  over  the  Missions  of  the  Church 
in  the  REPUBLIC  OF  TEXAS.  Attest,  Jonathan  M.  Wainwright, 
Sec'y.' 

"  On  motion  of  Rev.  Dr.  Tyng,  the  nomination  of  the  Bishop  of 
Arkansas  and  Texas  (as  above)  was  UNANIMOUSLY  assented  to." 

It  was  not  enough  thus  to  elevate  the  reckless  defender  of 
slavery  to  the  high  and  holy  office  of  a  Bishop  in  the  Church  of 
God,  but  he  must  be  selected  as  an  apostle  to  Texas !  There 


416  JAY'S  WORKS. 

was,  indeed,  a  peculiar  significance  in  this  selection.  The  odium 
in  which  the  people  of  Texas  were  held  by  the  Christian  com 
munity  at  large,  arose  not  merely  from  their  general  profligacy, 
but  also,  and  chiefly,  from  their  conduct  in  relation  to  slavery. 
Taking  possession  of  lands  belonging  to  Mexico,  they  reestab 
lished  slavery  upon  the  very  soil  from  which  it  had  been  recently 
banished  by  that  Roman  Catholic  government.  To  secure  to 
themselves  the  unmolested  enjoyment  of  their  human  chattels, 
they  raised  the  standard  of  rebellion,  and  with  the  aid  of  south 
ern  slave-holders  erected  themselves  into  an  independent  Re 
public.  Having  thus,  as  they  professed,  achieved  their  own 
liberty,  they  adopted  a  constitution  rendering  the  bondage  of 
others  hopeless  and  perpetual ;  and  outraging  alike  the  dictates 
of  nature  and  of  justice,  ordained  that  no  free  mulatto  should 
ever  live  in  Texas,  thus  dooming  their  own  colored  offspring, 
for  all  time  to  come,  to  slavery  or  to  exile  ! 

The  southern  slave-holders  were  exceedingly  anxious  that 
Texas  should  be  admitted  into  the  Union,  for  the  double  purpose 
of  strengthening  the  slave  interest,  and  opening  a  new  market 
for  the  benefit  of  the  breeding  States.  For  the  same  reasons, 
in  addition  to  the  odious  character  of  the  Texans,  the  proposed 
annexation  was  resisted  by  the  almost  united  moral  feeling  of 
the  whole  North.  The  question  of  annexation  was  agitating  the 
nation  when  the  Convention  assembled,  and  the  selection  of 
Freeman  as  Bishop  of  Texas  was  virtually,  whether  so  intended 
or  not,  a  repudiation  by  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 
General  Convention  assembled,  of  the  moral  objections  urged 
against  the  admission  of  that  Republic  into  our  confederacy. 
The  Church  sent  to  the  Texans  a  man  who,  she  knew,  would 
confirm  and  strengthen  them  by  apostolic  instruction  and  bene 
diction  in  those  great  principles  of  their  constitution,  which  had 
excited  the  execration  of  the  Christian  world. 

Let  us  now  take  a  view  of  that  institution,  which,  the  Texan 
Bishop  assures  us,  enjoys  the  approval  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles. 
He  tells  us, 

"  There  was  in  general  no  distinction  of  color,  no  prevailing  differ 
ence  in  the  conformation  of  the  features  and  limbs,  no  striking  dissimi- 


REPROOF    OF    THE     AMERICAN    CHURCH.  417 

larity  in  the  intellectual  powers,  to  mark  the  line  of  separation  between 
the  masters  and  their  bondmen,  and  stamp  them  as  different  races  of 
men.  No  peculiarity  of  this  kind  existed  which  would  have  prevented 
those  who  were  slaves,  had  they  been  placed  in  other  circumstances, 
from  taking  rank  in  society,  and  looking  forward  to  the  highest  dis 
tinctions  in  the  community.  Had  they  not  been  slaves,  they  would 
have  become  magistrates,  nobles,  or  rulers  5  respected  by  multitudes 
as  equals,  or  venerated  as  superiors." 

Here,  it  will  be  observed,  we  have  none  of  the  usual  nonsense 
about  the  curse  of  Canaan,  nor  of  the  usual  blasphemy  about 
negroes  being  created  by  God  for  slaves.  Jesus  Christ  and  his 
apostles  approved  of  the  bondage  of  white  men  as  intelligent  as 
their  masters  :  and  of  course  the  whole  of  our  present  bench  of 
Bishops,  including  Bishop  Freeman  himself,  might,  under  certain 
circumstances,  be  lawfully  reduced  to  slavery,  and  righteously 
held  as  chattels  by  Christian  men. 

We  are  expressly  referred  in  the  sermons,  to  Roman  slavery, 
as  that  which  enjoyed  the  sanction  of  the  great  Head  of  the 
Church.  And  what  was  ROMAN  SLAVERY?  Our  answer  to 
this  question  is  taken  from  a  very  learned  work,  whose  state 
ments  are  all  verified  by  references  to  Roman  authorities.* 

"  The  slave  had  no  protection  against  the  avarice,  rage,  or  lust  of 
the  master,  whose  authority  was  founded  in  absolute  property  ;  and  the 
bondman  was  viewed  less  as  a  human  being  subject  to  arbitrary  domin 
ion,  than  as  an  inferior  animal,  dependent  wholly  on  the  will  of  his 
owner.  At  first,  the  master  possessed  the  uncontrolled  power  of  life 
and  death.  He  might  kill,  mutilate  or  torture  his  slaves,  for  any  or  no 
offence ;  he  might  force  them  to  become  gladiators  or  prostitutes. 
The  temporary  unions  of  male  with  female  slaves  were  formed  and 
dissolved  at  his  command ;  families  and  friends  were  separated  when 
he  pleased.  The  laws  recognized  no  obligation  upon  the  owners  of 
slaves,  to  furnish  them  with  food  and  clothing,  or  to  take  care  of  them 
in  sickness.  Slaves  could  have  no  property  but  by  the  sufferance  of 
their  master,  for  whom  they  acquired  everything,  and  with  whom  they 
could  form  no  engagements  which  would  be  binding  on  him.  The 
master  might  transfer  his  rights  by  either  sale  or  gift,  or  might  be- 
queathe  them  by  will.  A  master  selling,  giving  or  bequeathing  a  slave, 
sometimes  made  it  a  provision  that  he  should  never  be  carried  abroad, 
or  that  he  should  be  manumitted  on  a  fixed  day  ;  or  that,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  should  never  be  emancipated,  or  that  he  should  be  kept  in 
chains  for  life.  While  slaves  turned  the  handmill,  they  were  generally 
chained,  and  had  a  broad  wooden  collar,  to  prevent  them  from  eating 

*"  Blair's  Inquiry  into  the  State  of  Slavery  among  the  Romans,  from  the 
earliest  period,  to  the  establishment  of  the  Lombards  in  Italy." 

3f? 


418  JAY'S  WORKS. 

the  grain.  The/wrca,  which  in  later  language  means  a  gibbet,  was,  in 
older  dialect,  used  to  denote  a  wooden  fork  or  collar,  which  was  made 
to  bear  upon  their  shoulders  or  around  their  necks,  as  a  mark  of  dis 
grace  as  much  as  an  uneasy  burden.  Fetters  and  chains  were  much 
used  for  punishment  or  restraint,  and  were,  in  some  instances,  worn 
by  slaves  during  life,  through  the  sole  authority  of  the  master.  Porters 
of  the  gates  of  the  rich  were  generally  chained.  Field  laborers  worked 
for  the  most  part  in  irons  posterior  to  the  first  ages  of  the  Republic. 
Some  persons  made  it  their  business  to  catch  runaway  slaves.*  The 
runaway,  when  taken,  was  severely  punished  by  authority  of  the  master, 
or  by  the  judge  at  his  desire ;  sometimes  with  crucifixion,  amputation 
of  a  foot,  or  by  being  sent  to  fight  as  a  gladiator  with  wild  beasts ;  but 
most  frequently  by  being  branded  on  the  brow  with  letters  indicative 
of  his  crime.  Cruel  masters  sometimes  hired  torturers  by  profession, 
or  had  such  persons  in  their  establishments,  to  assist  them  in  punishing 
their  slaves.  The  noses,  and  ears,  and  teeth  of  slaves  were  olten  in 
danger  from  an  enraged  owner ;  and  sometimes  the  eyes  of  a  great 
offender  were  put  out.  Crucifixion  was  very  frequently  made  the  fate 
of  a  wretched  slave  for  trifling  misconduct,  or  from  mere  caprice.  By 
a  decree  passed  by  the  Senate,  if  a  master  was  murdered,  when  his 
slaves  might  possibly  have  aided  him,  all  his  household  within  reach 
were  held  as  implicated  and  deserving  of  death ;  and  Tacitus  relates  an 
instance  in  which  a  family  of  four  hundred  were  all  executed." 

Such  was  the  slavery  which  the  Bishop  of  Texas  tells  us  was 
found  "  extensively  established  in  the  Roman  Empire,  embracing 
nearly  all  the  civilized  world,  by  our  Saviour,  when  lie  appeared 
on  earth ;  and  that  neither  lie,  nor  his  inspired  apostles  after 
him,  ever  expressed  any  disapprobation  of  it,  or  left  on  record  a 
single  precept  directing  its  discontinuance  ;  and  what  then  is  the 
conclusion  ?  Why,  surely  this  much,  if  nothing  farther,  that  no 
man  nor  set  of  men  in  our  day,  unless  they  can  produce  A  NEW 

REVELATION  FROM  HEAVEN  ARE  ENTITLED  TO  PRONOUNCE  IT 
WRONG " I 

Let  us  next  endeavor  to  acquire  some  idea  of  the  number  of 
the  bondmen,  whose  prison-house,  if  wre  believe  the  Right  Rev. 

*  This  profession  is  not  unknown  among  ourselves,  as  appears  from  the 
following  notice  in  the  Sumner  County  (Alabama)  Whig. 

"NEGRO  DOGS. 

"  THE  undersigned  having  bought  the  entire  pack  of  Negro  Dogs,  (of  the 
Hay  and  Allen  stock,)  he  now  proposes  to  catch  runaway  negroes.  His 
charges  will  be  Three  Dollars  per  day  for  hunting,  and  Fifteen  Dollars  for 
catching  a  runaway.  He  resides  three  and  one-half  miles  north  of  Livingston, 
near  the  lower  Jones'  Bluff  road.  WILLIAM  GAMBEL. 

"Nov.  6,  1845  — 6m." 


REPROOF    OF   THE    AMERICAN    CHURCH.  419 

Texan  Father  in  God,  was  barred  and  bolted  by  Him  who  gave 
his  life  a  ransom  for  many.  Gibbon  estimates  the  whole  slave 
population  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor 
Claudius  at  SIXTY  3HLLIONS  (I,  53),  and  Blair  regards  this 
estimate  as  much  too  smalL 

It  is  important  to  ascertain  how  this  prodigious  multitude  were 
reduced  to  bondage ;  because  as  our  spiritual  champions  of  sla 
very  invariably  omit  to  explain  the  scriptural  process  of  con 
verting  free  men  into  slaves,  we  are  left  to  seek  instruction  in 
this  branch  of  our  duty  from  the  Romans ;  since,  as  in  no  one 
instance  were  they  rebuked  by  Christ  and  his  apostles,  for  any 
of  their  various  contrivances  for  manufacturing  slaves,  the  con 
clusion  is,  surely,  "  this  much,  if  nothing  further,  that  no  man 
nor  set  of  men  in  our  day,  unless  they  can  produce  a  new  reve 
lation  from  Heaven,  are  entitled  "  to  pronounce  any  of  the  Roman 
methods  of  making  slaves,  "  wrong." 

The  most  prolific  source  of  slavery  was  WAR.  Livy  informs 
us  that  after  the  fall  of  the  Samnites  at  Aquilone,  about  36,000 
prisoners  were  sold ;  and  Plutarch,  that  150,000  of  the  people 
of  Epirus  were  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the  army  under  Paulus 
JEmilius  ;  and  we  learn  from  Cicero,  that  when  Pindenissus 
was  taken,  the  inhabitants  were  made  slaves.  Hence,  should  a 
Mexican  force  hereafter  make  an  incursion  into  Texas,  and 
carry  off  the  Bishop,  his  wife  and  children,  and  sell  them  to  dif 
ferent  masters,  under  whom  they  should  be  compelled  to  spend 
their  days  in  unceasing  toil  —  condemned  to  all  the  misery  and 
degradation  of  Roman  bondmen,  —  the  Bishop  would  have  the 
consolation  of  knowing  that  the  treatment  he  experienced  was 
in  perfect  consistency  with  that  Gospel  which  he  had  himself 
preached. 

COMMERCE  was  another  mode  of  acquiring  slaves.  A  pro 
digious  slave-trade  was  carried  on  in  the  countries  bordering  on 
the  Euxine,  with  various  Provinces  in  Asia,  with  Thrace,  and 
even  with  Spain  and  Great  Britain.  Here  we  learn  how  pre 
sumptuous  it  is  to  denounce  the  African  slave-trade  as  sinful. 

THE  PROFESSION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  was  occasionally  visited 


420  JAY'S  WORKS. 

by  the  Romans  with  slavery.     At  the  present  day,  it  affords  no 
security  against  American  slavery,  nor  deliverance  from  it. 

There  were  still  four  other  modes  of  acquiring  slaves,  which 
are  particularly  interesting  to  us  ;  because,  having  been  copied 
by  us  from  the  Roman  law,  we  can  have  no  scruples  about  their 
lawfulness  :  for  had  they  been  wrong,  Christ  and  his  apostles, 
according  to  Bishop  Freeman,  would  have  condemned  them. 

1.  The  sale  of  children  by  their  fathers.     With  us  the  privi 
lege  is  confined  to  the  sale  of  children  by  a  slave  mother.     In 
the  Bishop's  Diocese,  this  privilege  was  nearly  converted  into  a 
necessity,  by  the  constitutional  provision  which  required  the 
bondage  or  expulsion  of  every  mulatto  child. 

2.  Selling  persons  convicted  of  crimes.     Among  the  Romans, 
persons  convicted  of  certain  offences  were  sold  as  slaves,  and 
their  posterity  after  them  were  doomed  to  bondage.     Similar 
laws  for  converting  free  negroes  and  mulattoes  into  slaves  are 
in  force  in  several  of  our  States.     Thus,  in  South  Carolina,  if  a 
free  negro  "  entertains  a  runaway  slave,"  he  forfeits  ten  pounds ; 
and  if,  as  must  generally  be  the  case,  he  cannot  pay  the  fine,  he 
is  sold.     In  1827,  a  free  woman  and  her  two  children  were  con 
verted  into  slaves  under  this  law,  for  sheltering  two  fugitive 
slave  children ! 

3.  Debtors  sold  by  their  creditors.     By  a  law  of  the  late  ter 
ritory  of  Florida,  approved  by  Congress,  (!)  when  a  judgment 
obtained  against  a  free  colored  person,  shall  remain  unsatisfied 
for  Jive  days,  such  person  shall  be  sold  to  raise  money  to  pay  the 
judgment.     The  sale  was  nominally  for  a  term  of  years,  but 
practically  for  life. 

4.  Suspected  fugitives  were  sold  as   slaves.      This   Roman 
device  for  procuring  slaves  is  now  in  operation  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  under  the  immediate  sanction  of  Congress,  and  in 
almost  every  slave  State.     The  process  is  simple :  A  man  who 
it  is  deemed  ought  to  be  a  slave,  is  arrested  on  suspicion  of  being 
a  runaway,  and  thrown  into  prison ;  notice  is  then  given  in  a 
newspaper  to  his  supposed  master,  to  come  and  claim  him.     If 
claimed,  well ;  if  not,  the  prisoner  is  sold  as  a  slave  for  life,  to 
raise  money  to  pay  the  expense  of  his  imprisonment. 


REPROOF    OF    THE    AMERICAN    CHURCH.  421 

Having  obtained  some  insight  into  Roman  slavery,  as  it  existed 
in  the  time  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  and  with  their  acquies 
cence,  let  us  next  look  at  "  slavery  as  it  exists  at  the  present 
day,"  and  which  the  Bishop  of  Texas,  with  the  concurrence  of 
the  Bishops  of  North  and  South  Carolina,  assures  us,  "  is 

AGREEABLE  TO  THE  ORDER  OF  DlVINE  PROVIDENCE." 

What  is  American  slavery  ?  Its  advocates  are  fond  of  hiding 
its  vileness  under  false  definitions.  It  is  not  servitude  —  it  is 
not  compulsory  labor  —  it  is  not  arbitrary  authority  —  it  is  not 
cruelty  —  it  is  not  injustice  —  it  is  not  oppression.  These  are, 
indeed,  the  usual  accidents  of  slavery ;  but  they  do  not  consti 
tute  it,  and  are  daily,  one  and  all,  found  in  total  separation  from, 
it.  Slavery  is  the  conversion  of  a  rational,  accountable,  immor 
tal  being,  made  in  the  image  of  God  and  a  little  lower  than  the 
angels,  and  for  whom  Christ  died,  into  a  CHATTEL,  an  article  of 
property,  a  vendible  commodity.*  It  is  not  the  violation  of  cer 
tain  rights,  but  the  annihilation  of  ALL.f  It  is  the  degradation 
of  a  man  to  the  level  of  a  brute,  j  Slavery  involves  the  denial 
of  all  domestic  relations,  and  consequently  the  refusal  to  afford 
them  legal  protection.  §  The  infant  slave  may  be  sold  or  given 
away  long  before  he  sees  the  light,  so  that,  at  the  instant  of  his 
birth,  he  belongs  to  one  master  and  his  mother  to  another.  ||  A 

*  "  Slaves  shall  be  deemed  sold,  taken,  reputed  and  adjudged  in  law  to  be 
chattels  personal  in  the  hands  of  their  owners,  and  possessors,  and  their  exec 
utors  and  administrators,  to  all  intents,  constructions  and  purposes  what 
ever."  Law  of  South  Carolina. 

•f" "  A  slave  is  one  who  is  in  the  power  of  his  master  to  whom  he  belongs. 
The  master  may  sell  him,  dispose  of  his  person,  his  industry  and  his  labor. 
He  can  do  nothing,  possess  nothing,  nor  acquire  anything  but  what  belongs 
to  his  master."  Civil  Code  of  Louisiana. 

J  "  In  case  the  personal  property  of  a  ward  shall  consist  of  specific  articles, 
such  as  slaves,  working  beasts,  animals  of  any  kind,  the  court,  if  it  deem  it 
advantageous  for  the  ward,  may  at  any  time  pass  an  order  for  the  sale  there 
of."  Lato  of  Maryland. 

§  "  With  the  consent  of  their  masters,  slaves  may  marry,  and  their  moral 
power  to  agree  to  such  a  contract  or  connection  as  that  of  marriage,  cannot 
be  doubted";  but  whilst  in  a  state  of  slavery  it  cannot  produce  any  civil  effect, 
because  slaves  are  deprived  of  all  cii'il  rights."  Judge  Matthews,  of  Louisi- 
ana ;  Martin's  Uep.  VI,  550. 

"A  slave  is  never  prosecuted  for  bigamy,  or  petty  treason  for  killing  a 
tmsband  being  a  slave,  any  more  than  admitted  to  an  appeal  for  murder." 
D.  Dulamy,  Attorney  General  of  Maryland.  1  Md.  Hep,,  561. 

|!  "  The  testator  left  his  negro  wench,  Pen,  to  one  daughter,  and  her  future 
increase  to  another.  The  court  decided  the  bequest  to  be  good,  and  that  all 

36* 


422  JAY'S  WORKS. 

slave  can  possess  no  property ;  *  nor  is  any  promise  to  him,  or 
agreement  with  him,  binding  in  law.f  Being  under  the  control 
of  his  master,  he  can  have  no  legal  right  to  attend  the  worship 
of  his  Maker,  j  Like  other  chattels,  he  can  obtain  no  legal 
redress  for  any  injury,  however  grievous.  §  The  master  may 
indeed  recover  compensation  from  any  one  who  damages  or  kills 
either  his  horse  or  his  slave ;  ||  but  the  law  refuses  to  notice 

the  children  born  of  Pen,  after  the  death  of  the  testator,  belonged  to  the 
sister  of  her  mistress.  Per  Cur.  He  who  is  the  absolute  owner  of  a  THING, 
owns  all  its  facilities  for  profits  or  increase,  as  well  as  the  thing  itself.  This 
is  every  day's  practice  ;  and  it  is  held  that  a  man  may  grant  the  wool  of  a 
flock  of  sheep  for  years."  Little's  Rep.,  Ill,  275.  Kentucky,  1823. 

*  A  master  made  a  devise  to  trustees,  for  the  benefit  of  his  slave  Betsey 
and  her  children.  Devise  held  to  be  void.  Per  Cur.  "  The  condition  of 
slaves  in  this  country  is  analogous  to  that  of  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Ro 
mans,  and  not  that  of  the  feudal  times.  They  are  generally  considered  not 
as  persons,  but  as  THINGS.  They  can  be  sold  or  transferred  as  goods  or  per 
sonal  estate ;  they  are  held  to  be  pro  nullis,  pro  mortuis.  By  the  civil  law7, 
slaves  could  not  take  property  by  descent  or  purchase  ;  and  I  apprehend  this 
to  be  the  law  of  this  country."  Dess.  Rep.  IV,  266.  South  Carolina. 

f  Application  to  enforce  a  contract  between  master  and  slave.  "Per  Cur. 
In  the  case  of  Sawney  vs.  Carter,  the  court  refused,  on  great  consideration, 
to  enforce  a  promise  by  a  master  to  emancipate  his  slave,  where  the  conditions 
of  the  promise  had  been  partly  complied  with  by  the  slave.  The  court  pro 
ceeded  on  the  principle,  that  it  is  not  competent  to  a  Court  of  Chancery  to 
enforce  a  contract  between  master  and  slave,  even  although  the  contract 
should  be  fully  complied  with  on  the  part  of  the  slave."  Leigh's  Rep.,  I,  72. 
Viff.,  1829. 

;£  "  150  free  negroes  and  slaves,  belonging  to  the  African  Church,  were  taken 
up  on  Sunday  afternoon  by  the  city  guard,  and  lodged  in  the  guard-house. 
The  City  Council  yesterday  morning  sentenced  five  of  them,  consisting  of  a 
Bishop  and  four  ministers,  to  one  month's  imprisonment,  or  to  give  security 
to  leave  the  State.  Eight  other  ministers  were  also  sentenced  separately  to 
receive  ten  lashes,  or  pav  a  fine  each  of  five  dollars."  Charleston  Patriot, 
1818. 

Those  whose  punishment  is  here  recorded  were  free  negroes ;  and  from 
their  fate,  we  may  judge  of  the  religious  privileges  of  the  slaves. 

§  "  It  would  be  an  idle  form  and  ceremony  to  make  a  slave  a  party  to  a  suit, 
by  the  instrumentality  of  which  he  could  recover  nothing  ;  or  if  a  recovery 
could  be  had,  the  instant  it  was  recovered,  it  would  belong  to  the  master.  The 
slave  can  possess  nothing,  he  can  hold  nothing.  He  is,  therefore,  not  a  com 
petent  party  to  a  suit."  Wheeler's  Treatise  on  the  Law  of  Slavery,  p.  197. 

j|  "  Trespass  for  killing  plaintiff's  slave.  It  appeared  the  slave  was  stealing 
potatoes  from  a  bank  near  defendant's  house.  The  defendant  fired  upon  him 
with  a  gun  loaded  with  buck-shot,  and  killed  him.  The  jury  found  a  verdict 
for  plaintiff  for  one  dollar.  Motion  for  new  trial.  The  court  hold  there 
must  be  a  new  trial ;  that  the  jury  ought  to  have  given  the  plaintiff  the  value 
of  the  slave.  That  if  the  jury  were  of  opinion  the  slave  was  of  bad  charac 
ter,  some  deduction  from  the  usual  price  ought  to  be  made  ;  but  the  plaintiff 
was  certainly  entitled  to  his  actual  damage  for  killing  his  slave.  Where 
property _  is  in  question,  the  value  of  the  article,  as  nearly  as  can  be  ascertain 
ed,  furnishes  a  rule  from  which  they  are  not  at  liberty  to  depart."  M' Cord's 
Rep.,  IV,  156.  South  Carolina,  1827. 


REPROOF    OF   THE    AMERICAN    CHURCH.  423 

any  insult  or  outrage  offered  to  male  or  female  slaves,  which 
does  not  lesson  their  price  in  the  market.*  The  whole  life  of  a 
slave  is  appropriated  by  the  master,  and  no  portion  of  it  belongs 
to  himself,  to  be  occupied  in  promoting  his  own  happiness,  or 
that  of  his  offspring.! 

*  "  There  must  be  a  loss  of  service,  or  at  least  a  diminution  of  the  faculty 
of  the  slave  for  bodily  labor,  to  warrant  an  action  by  the  master."  Harris 
and  Johnson's  Rep.,  I,  4.  Maryland. 

f  "  The  defendant  was  indicted  for  an  assault  and  battery  upon  Lydia,  the 
slave  of  one  Elizabeth  Jones.  On  the  trial,  it  appeared  that  the  defendant 
had  hired  the  slave  for  a  year  ;  that  during  the  term,  the  slave  had  committed 
some  small  offence,  for  which  the  defendant  undertook  to  chastise  her  ;  that 
while  in  the  act  of  so  doing,  the  slave  ran  off,  whereupon  the  defendant  called 
upon  her  to  stop,  which  being  refused,  he  shot  at  and  wounded  her.  The 
defendant  was  found  guilty,  and  appealed.  Per  Cur.  Ruffin,  J.  The  in 
quiry  here  is,  whether  a  cruel  and  unreasonable  battery  on  a  slave  by  the 
hirer  is  indictable.  ...  In  criminal  proceedings,  and  indeed  in  refer 
ence  to  all  other  persons  but  the  general  owner,  the  hirer  and  possessor  of  a 
slave,  in  relation  to  both  rights  and  duties,  is,  for  the  time  being,  the  owner. 
.  .  .  .  Upon  the  general  question  whether  the  owner  is  answerable  crim- 
inaliter  for  a  battery  upon  his  own  slave,  or  other  exercise  of  authority  or 
force  not  forbidden  by  statute,  the  court  entertains  but  little  doubt.  That  he 
is  so  liable  has  never  been  decided,  nor,  as  far  as  is  known,  been  hitherto  con 
tended.  The  established  habits  and  uniform  practice  of  the  country,  in  this 
respect,  are  the  best  evidence  of  the  portion  of  power  deemed  by  the  whole 
community  requisite  to  the  preservation  of  the  master's  dominion.  This 
has,  indeed,  been  assimilated  at  the  bar  to  the  other  domestic  relations,  and 
arguments  drawn  from  the  well-established  principles  which  confer  and 
restrain  the  authority  of  the  parent  over  the  child,  the  tutor  over  the  pupil, 
the  master  over  the  apprentice,  have  been  pressed  on  us.  The  court  does 
not  recognize  their  application.  There  is  no  likeness  between  the  cases. 
They  are  in  opposition  to  each  other,  and  there  is  an  impassable  gulf  between 
them.  The  difference  is  that  which  exists  between  freedom  and  slavery  ;  and 
a  greater  cannot  be  imagined.  In  the  one,  the  end  in  view  is  the  happiness 
of  the  youth,  born  to  equal  rights  with  the  governor  on  whom  devolves  the 
duty  of  training  the  young  to  usefulness,  in  a  station  which  he  is  hereafter 
to  assume  among  freemen.  To  such  an  end,  and  with  such  a  subject,  moral 
and  intellectual  instruction  seems  the  natural  means,  and  for  the  most  part, 
it  is  found  to  suffice ;  moderate  force  is  only  superadded  to  make  the 
others  effectual.  If  that  fail,  it  is  better  to  leave  the  party  to  his  own  head 
strong  passions  and  the  ultimate  correction  of  the  law,  than  to  allow  it  to  be 
immoderately  inflicted  by  a  private  person.  With  slavery  it  is  far  otherwise. 
The  end  is  the  profit  of  the  master,  his  security  and  the  public  peace.  The 
subject  is  one  doomed  in  his  own  person  and  in  his  posterity,  to  live  ivithout 
knowledge,  and  without  capacity  to  make  anything  his  own,  and  to  toil  that 
others  may  reap  the  fruits. 

"  What  moral  considerations  shall  be  addressed  to  such  a  being  to  convince 
him,  what  it  is  impossible  but  that  the  most  stupid  must  feel  and  know  can 
never  be  true,  that  he  is  thus  to  labor  upon  a  principle  of  natural  duty,  or 
for  the  sake  of  his  own  personal  happiness  ?  Such  services  can  only  be  ex 
pected  from  one  who  has  no  will  of  his  own,  who  surrenders  his  will  in  explicit 
obedience  to  that  of  another.  Such  obedience  is  the  consequence  only  of 
uncontrolled  authority  over  the  body.  There  is  nothing  else  which  can  operate 
to  produce  the  effect.  The  power  of  the  master  must  be  absolute,  to  render 
the  submission  of  the  slave  perfect.  I  most  freely  confess  my  sense  of  the 
harshness  of  this  proposition.  I  feel  it  as  deeply  as  any  man  can.  And  as 
a  principle  of  moral  right,  every  person  in  his  retirement  must  repudiate  it. 


424  JAY'S  WORKS* 

Such  is  American  slavery,  not  as  abused  by  the  cruel  and  the 
lawless,  but  as  established  by  legislative  enactments  and  main 
tained  by  judicial  decisions.  Such  is  the  slavery  which  George 
W.  Freeman,  as  minister  of  the  Most  High  God,  declares  to  be 
"  agreeable  to  the  order  of  Divine  Providence." 

Such  is  the  slavery,  to  the  defence  of  which  in  God's  house 
on  his  holy  day,  the  Right  Rev.  Father  in  God,  LEVI  S.  IVES, 
listened  with  "  most  unfeigned  pleasure."  Such  is  the  slavery, 
whose  vindication  the  churchmen  of  South  Carolina  spread  on 
the  wings  of  the  wind,  for  "  the  advancement  of  Christianity." 
And  shall  there  not  be  a  woe  now,  as  in  ancient  times,  "  unto 
them  that  call  evil  good,  and  good  evil ;  that  put  darkness  for 
light,  and  light  for  darkness  ;  that  put  bitter  for  sweet,  and  sweet 
for  bitter  ?  "  The  guilt  of  such  clerical  champions  of  slavery  as 
Bishops  Ives  and  Freeman,  is  tremendously  aggravated  by  their 
personal  knowledge  of  its  unutterable  abominations.  The  de 
cision  of  Judge  Ruffin,  quoted  in  the  notes,  was  delivered  in 
Bishop  Ives's  Diocese,  and  in  which  Freeman  delivered  his  no 
torious  sermons.  Only  jive  days  after  the  latter  had  declared 
from  the  pulpit  of  Raleigh,  that  "  slavery  as  it  exists  at  the 
present  day  is  agreeable  to  the  order  of  Divine  Providence,"  the 
following  comment  appeared  in  the  Newbern  (N.  C.)  Spectator  ; 

"  $200  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber  about  three  years 
ago,  a  certain  negro  man  named  Ben,  commonly  known  by  the  name 
of  Ben  Fox.  He  had  but  one  eye.  Also,  one  other  negro  by  the  name 
of  Rigdon,  who  ran  away  on  the  8th  of  this  month.  I  will  give  the 
reward  of  one  hundred  dollars  for  each  of  the  above  negroes,  to  be  de 
livered  .to  me,  or  confined  in  the  jail  of  Lenoir  or  Jones  County,  or  for 

THE  KILLING  OF  THEM,  SO  THAT  I  CAN  SEE  THEM. 

W.  D.  COBB." 

And  now  does  the  reader  imagine  Mr.  Cobb  some  horrible 
wretch,  who  thus  publicly  offers  money  for  the  blood  of  the  in- 

But  in  tlie  actual  condition  of  things,  it  must  be  so.  There  is  no  remedy. 
THIS  DISCIPLINE  BELONGS  TO  SLAVERY."  The  State,  vs.  Mann,  Dev.  Rep. ;  p. 
263.  North  Carolina,  1829. 

And  so  it  was  decided,  that  a  master  or  his  locum  teriens  may,  with  legal 
impunity,  SHOOT  A  WOMAN  if  she  will  not  stand  still  to  be  flogged  !  It  is 
pleasing  to  see  that  this  judge,  while  upholding  the  essential  discipline  of 
slavery,  is  too  honest  to  wait  for  a  new  revelation  from  Heaven  to  pronounce 
it  wrong ;  and  they  who  profess  to  believe  it  right,  insult  the  moral  sense  of 
mankind,  and  lie  to  their  own  consciences. 


REPROOF    OF   THE    AMERICAN    CHURCH.  425 

nocent,  for  even  Judge  Rufnn  admits  that  no  principle  of  natural 
duty  requires  the  slave  to  toil  for  his  master  ?  Mr.  Cobb  may 
be  a  very  reputable  churchwarden,  vestryman,  or  communicant 
of  the  Church  in  Newbern.  He  is  a  law-abiding  citizen,  and  has 
acted  in  strict  accordance  with  "  slavery  as  it  exists  at  the  pres 
ent  day,"  and  of  course  "  agreeably  with  the  order  of  Divine  Prov 
idence."  Before  he  thus  compassed  the  death  of  two  of  his 
fellow-men,  he  obtained,  and  published  in  the  same  paper  with 
his  advertisement,  the  following  proclamation,  viz. : 

"  We  do  hereby,  by  virtue  of  an  Act  of  the  Assembly  of  this  State, 
concerning  servants  and  slaves,  intimate  and  declare  if  the  said  slaves 
(Ben  and  Rigdon)  do  not  surrender  themselves,  and  return  home  im 
mediately  after  the  publication  of  these  presents,  that  any  person  may 
KILL  and  destroy  said  slaves,  by  such  means  as  he  or  they  may  think 
Jit,  without  accusation  or  impeachment  of  any  crime  for  so  doing,  or 
without  incurring  any  penalty  or  forfeiture  thereby. 

"  Given  under  our  hands  and  seals,  this  12th  November,  1836. 

B.    COLEMAN,    J.    P. 

JAS.  JONES,  J.  P." 

It  may,  indeed,  be  said  that  this  proclamation  of  the  two  jus 
tices  of  the  peace  is  an  idle  mockery,  first,  because  the  slaves 
are  by  law  incapacitated  from  reading  it,  and  secondly,  because 
it  assigns  no  time  for  their  return,  and  of  course,  that  they  might 
legally  be  flayed  alive  an  hour  after  the  proclamation  was  issued. 
But  what  is  all  this  to  Mr.  Cobb  ?  He  has  strictly  pursued  the 
course  pointed  out  by  law  for  murdering  slaves  in  Bishop  Ives's 
Diocese. 

Again,  the  Wilmington  (same  diocese)  Advertiser  of  July 
13,  1838,  has  the  following: 

"  RUN  AWAY,  my  negro  man  Richard.  A  reward  of  $25  will  be 
paid  for  his  apprehension,  DEAD  or  alive.  Satisfactory  proof  will  only 
be  required  of  his  being  KILLED.  DURANT  H.  RHODES." 

Mr.  Rhodes,  it  must  be  admitted,  is  more  confiding  in  human 
nature  than  Mr.  Cobb.  The  latter  would  only  pay  his  money, 
after  beholding  with  his  own  eyes  the  dead  bodies  of  his  slaves ; 
whereas,  Mr.  Rhodes  is  contented  with  satisfactory  proof  that 
his  man  Richard  has  been  slaughtered. 

We  will  give  one  more  instance  of  the  taste,  feelings,  and 


426  JAY'S  WORKS. 

morality,  springing  from  slavery  in  the  Bishop's  Diocese,  ex 
tracted  from  the  North  Carolina  Standard  of  July  18,  1838, 
published  at  Raleigh,  the  residence  of  the  Bishop,  and  very 
probably  honored  by  his  constant  perusal. 

"  TWENTY  DOLLARS  REWARD. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  a 
negro  woman  and  two  children.  The  woman  is  tall  and  black,  and  a 
few  days  before  she  went  off,  /  burnt  her  with  a  hot  iron  on  the  left  side 
of  her  face.  I  tried  to  make  the  letter  M,  and  she  kept  a  cloth  over 
head  and  face,  and  a  fly  bonnet  on  her  head,  so  as  to  cover  the  burn. 
Her  children,  &c.  MICAJAH  RICKS." 

It  is  utterly  impossible  that  the  southern  clergy,  in  pleading 
for  the  continuance  of  slavery,  should  not  be  conscious  that  they 
are  pleading  for  the  continued  ignorance,  wretchedness,  and 
heathenism  of  millions  of  their  fellow-men.* 
*-  Of  the  necessary  heathenism  of  slavery,  little  need  be  said. 
There  may  indeed  be  slaves  who  are  Christians,  but  they  are 
extraordinary  exceptions  from  the  system.  Can  Christianity 
take  root  and  flourish  where  every  religious  privilege  depends  on 
the  will  of  an  arbitrary  and  often  Godless  master? — where  the 
conjugal  and  paternal  relations  are  unacknowledged,  and  in  prac 
tice  tmrespected  ? — where  the  avenues  to  knowledge  are  closed, 
and  ignorance  enforced,  and  where  the  very  ministers  of  Christ 
are  justly  regarded  by  the  slaves  as  in  league  with  their  oppres 
sors  ?  It  is,  moreover,  utterly  impossible  that  competent  religious 
instruction  can  be  afforded  to  the  slaves,  without  at  the  same 
time  imparting  to  them  sufficient  intelligence  to  endanger  the 
whole  system.  Give  to  the  slaves  the  means  of  becoming  Chris 
tians,  and  you  render  them  both  useless  and  formidable  to  their 
masters.  What !  shall  a  slave  be  enabled  to  contemplate  the 
mysteries  of  redemption,  and  yet  not  understand  the  iniquity  of 
his  own  bondage  ?  Shall  his  heart  glow  with  love  for  his  Saviour, 
and  yet  shall  he  be  made  to  believe  that  that  Saviour  approves 
the  cruelty  and  injustice  of  which  he  is  daily  the  victim  ?  Shall 

*  De  Tocqueville  describes  the  slave  code  as  "legislation  stained  by  unpar 
alleled  atrocities  ;  a  despotism,  directed  against  the  human  mind.  Legislation 
which  forbids  the  slaves  to  be  taught  to  read  or  write ;  and  which  aims  to 
sink  them  as  nearly  as  possible  to  the  level  of  the  brutes."  But  De  Tocque- 
i  ville  is  a  French  Philosophe.  We  are  not  aware  that  any  minister  of  the 
CHUB.CU,  in  the  slave  States,  has  declared  this  legislation  to  be  sinful. 


REPROOF    OF    THE     AMERICAN    CHURCH.  427 

he  be  taught,  as  Bishop  Freeman  advises,  to  say  the  ten  com 
mandments,  and  not  perceive  that  nearly  the  whole  decalogue  is 
violated  in  his  own  person  ?  The  Bishop  says  he  must  also  learn 
his  catechism.  If  he  understands  it,  with  what  bitter  scorn  will 
he  repeat,  that  it  is  his  duty  "  not  to  covet  or  desire  other  men's 
goods,  but  to  learn  and  labor  truly  to  get  his  own  living,"  recol 
lecting  that  he  is  himself  robbed,  and  with  the  consent  and  ap 
probation  of  his  spiritual  teacher,  of  every  product  of  his  own 
labor,  and  that  the  only  possible  means  whereby  he  can  get  his 
own  living,  is  by  escaping  from  the  house  of  bondage !  * 

One  of  the  "  duties  of  slave-holders  "  is  to  have  slave  children  . 
baptized.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  for  the  sake  of  decency,  that  the 
address  to  sponsors  will  on  such  occasions  be  omitted,  as  it  would 
be  trifling  with  sacred  things  to  tell  the  chattel  parents  or  friends, 
that  they  must  call  upon  the  child  as  he  grows  up  to  hear  ser 
mons,  and  take  care  that  he  be  brought  to  the  Bishop  for  con 
firmation  ;  since  if  either  the  sponsors  or  the  child  attempt  to 
leave  the  plantation  without  their  master's  permission,  they  may 
legally  be  shot,  and  will  certainly  be  scourged.  It  is,  moreover, 
scarcely  reverent  to  assure  these  sponsors,  to  whom  the  AYord  of 
God  is  a  sealed  book,  and  who  have,  and  can  have  nothing  of 
their  own,  that  is  their  duty  to  provide  that  the  little  article  of 
merchandise  be  taught  "  all  which  a  Christian  ought  to  know 
and  believe  to  his  soul's  health." 

Bishop  Freeman  is  prudently  silent  on  the  subject  of  slave 
marriages.  Surely  a  minister  of  the  Church  must  have  a  front 
of  bronze  to  use  "the  form  of  matrimony"  in  connecting  two 
slaves.  To  make  persons  who  are  vendible  commodities,  and 

*  For  these  or  other  reasons,  Bishop  Ives  has  himself  constructed  a  cate 
chism,  whose  admirable  qualities  he  thus  describes  :  "  The  plainness  of  its 
directions  enables  any  person  to  apply  it.  If  our  planters,  therefore,  under 
a  sense  of  their  solemn  responsibility  to  God  for  the  Christian  instruction  of 
their  slaves,  would  adopt  it,  and  see  to  its  faithful  inculcation,  the  next  gen 
eration  of  blacks  in  our  State,  at  a  very  small  expense,  would  sufficiently  un 
derstand  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  WITHOUT  KXOWIXG  A  LETTER  OF  THE  AL 
PHABET."  Spirit  of  Missions,  Nov.  1842. 

There  are  in  the  Bishop's  diocese,  as  appears  by  the  last  census,  209,783 
free  white  persons  over  twenty  years  of  age.  Of  these,  56,609,  or  nearly  one- 
third,  cannot  read  or  write.  Hence,  the  next  generation  of  ^chites  in  North 
Carolina  may  be  equally  indebted  with  the  blacks,  to  this  catechism,  for  their 
knowledge  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  And  yet  there  may  be  doubts  of  the 
efficiency  of  this  labor-saving  machine,  seeing  it  is  to  be  applied  by  slave 
holders,  so  many  of  whom  do  not  themselves  know  a  letter  of  the  alphabet. 


428  JAY'S  WORKS. 

who  can  never  spend  an  hour  together  without  the  permission  of 
one,  and  often  of  two  masters,  vow,  in  the  presence  of  Almighty 
God,  to  cleave  to  each  other  in  riches  and  in  poverty,  in  sickness 
and  in  health,  till  parted  by  death,  is  but  solemn  mockery.  The 
priestly  prohibition,  "  Those  whom  God  has  joined  together,  let 
not  man  put  asunder,"  is,  moreover,  not  merely  in  utter  contempt 
of  the  laws  of  the  land,  but  at  war  with  the  very  existence  of 
slavery.  If  the  husband  and  wife  may  not  be  separated  at  the 
will  of  their  owners,  and  according  to  the  state  of  the  market, 
what  becomes  of  property  in  man  ? 

As  the  House  of  Bishops,  in  their  selection  of  Dr.  Freeman, 
gave  their  implied  sanction  to  American  slavery,  it  might  be 
well  for  them  in  their  next  pastoral  letter  to  determine  how  far, 
and  under  what  circumstances,  the  CHURCH  allows  a  slave  a 
plurality  of  wives.  This  is  the  more  necessary,  as  the  "  sects  " 
are  beginning  to  legislate  upon  the  subject,  since  the  civil  power 
in  this  particular  gives  him  unbounded  liberty.  A  reverend 
Professor  of  the  Methodist  Church  has  decided  that  it  is  perfectly 
lawful  for  an  owner  to  separate  husband  and  wife,  and  that  if 
there  be  any  sin  in  the  case,  it  rests  upon  the  shoulders  of  the 
slaves,  who  ought  not  to  have  taken  vows  which  their  condition 
disqualifies  them  from  keeping.  A  Baptist  association  in  Vir 
ginia  have  granted  permission  to  a  slave  member  to  take  a  sec 
ond  wife,  his  first  having  been  sold  into  another  part  of  the 
country ;  and  another  association  in  Georgia  is  reported  to  have 
voted,  that  a  separation  of  man  and  wife,  by  sale  or  hire,  to  such 
a  distance  as  precludes  personal  intercourse,  is  considered  by 
God  as  equivalent  to  death.* 

One  of  the  blessed  objects  for  which  God  instituted  marriage, 
was  the  care  and  instruction  of  the  young ;  and  hence  the  in 
junction,  "  Parents,  bring  up  your  children  in  the  nurture  and 
admonition  of  the  Lord."  But  slave  children,  as  we  have  seen, 
may  be  sold  or  given  away  before  their  birth,  and  are  the  sub 
jects  of  traffic  at  an  early  age.  For  this  and  other  reasons,  the 

*  Professor  E.  A.  Andrews,  in  his  letter  on  "  Slavery  and  the  Domestic 
Slave-Trade,"  relates  that  a  slave,  complaining  to  him  that  his  wife's  master 
was  about  selling  her,  remarked,  "  This  is  my  third  wife ;  both  the  others 
were  sold  to  the  speculators." 


REPROOF    OF    THE     AMERICAN    CHURCH.  429 

religious  education  of  slaves  is,  with  rare  exceptions,  wholly  out 
of  the  question.  On  the  whole,  slavery  and  heathenism  are,  in 
the  general,  indissolubly  connected ;  and  Jesus  Christ,  in  approv 
ing  of  the  one,  consented  that  millions  for  whom  he  died  should 
become  the  victims  of  the  other ! 

Of  the  rights  of  property,  none  are  more  obvious  and  indis 
putable  than  that  of  buying  and  selling.  Hence  the  advocates 
of  the  African  slave-trade  in  the  British  Parliament  most  con 
sistently  rested  the  justification  of  the  commerce  on  the  right 
eousness  of  slavery  itself.  Not  a  clerical  champion  of  "  slavery 
as  it  exists  at  present,"  questions  the  moral  right 

"  To  gauge  and  span, 
And  buy  the  muscles  and  the  bones  of  man." 

And  now  we  call  upon  our  Bishops,  either  to  disabuse  the 
public  mind  as  to  the  alleged  iniquity  of  the  African  slave-trade, 
or  else  to  show  from  Scripture,  that  while  it  is  very  wicked  to 
buy  a  savage  in  Africa  and  sell  him  in  Cuba,  it  is  a  lawful  act 
to  buy  a  fellow-countryman,  and  possibly  a  fellow-Christian  in 
North  Carolina,  and  sell  him  in  New  Orleans.* 

*  Bishop  Ives's  diocese  is  one  of  the  great  breeding  districts  in  which  hu 
man  cattle  are  raised  for  the  Southern  market.  As  a  specimen  of  the  style 
in  which  the  correspondence  of  gentlemen  engaged  in  this  commerce  is  con 
ducted,  we  give  a  letter  from  a  North  Carolina  merchant  to  his  consignee,  at 
New  Orleans  : 

"  HALIFAX,  N.  C.,  Nov.  16,  1839. 

Dear  Sir  —  I  have  shipped  in  the  brig  Addison  —  prices  are  below  — 

No.  1.  Caroline  Ennis,., $650 

2.  Silvy  Holland, 625 

3.  Silvy  Booth, 487.50 

4.  Maria  Pollock 475 

5.  Emeline  Pollock, 475 

6.  Delia  Averit, 475. 

The  two  girls  that  cost  $650  and  $625,  were  bought  before  I  shipped  my 
first.  I  have  a  great  many  negroes  offered  to  me,  but  I  will  not  pay  the  prices 
they  ask,  for  I  know  they  will  come  down.  I  have  no  opposition  in  market.. 
I  will  wait  until  I  hear  from  you  before  I  buy,  and  then  I  can  judge  what  I 
must  pay.  Goodwin  will  send  you  the  bill  of  lading  for  my  negroes,  as  he 
shipped  them  with  his  own.  Write  often,  as  the  times  are  critical,  and  it 
depends  on  the  prices  you  get,  to  govern  me  in  buying.  Yours,  &c. 

Mr.  Theophilus  Freeman,  >  G.  "VV.  BARNES." 

New  Orleans.  £ 

The  above  was  a  small  but  choice  invoice  of  wives  and  mothers.  Nine 
days  before,  viz.,  Nov.  7,  Mr.  Barnes  advised  Mr.  Freeman  of  having 

37 


430  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Again,  as  God  approved  of  the  bondage  of  white  men,  would 
it  not  be  a  laudable  enterprise  to  enlarge  the  assortments  in  our 
slave-markets,  by  the  importation  of  Russian  serfs  ?  If  the 
reduction  of  millions  of  the  human  race  to  the  condition  of  mere 
chattels  be  consistent  with  the  will  of  God,  then,  inasmuch  as 
the  greater  includes  the  less,  who  shall  say  that  every  minor 
form  of  oppression  is  not  equally  agreeable  to  the  common 
Father  of  mankind  ? 

"  Slavery,"  says  Wilberforce,  is  "  a  system  of  the  grossest 
injustice,  of  the  most  heathenish  irreligion  and  immorality,  of 
the  most  unprecedented  degradation  and  unrelenting  cruelty." 
Yet  of  this  system  the  Episcopal  Church  is  a  mighty  buttress, 
and  certain  of  her  bishops  its  reckless  and  unblushing  champi 
ons.  But  could  the  united  logic  and  eloquence  of  the  whole 
House  of  Bishops  persuade  the  mother,  as  she  bends  with  delight 
over  the  infant  cherub  in  the  cradle,  that  the  compassionate  Re 
deemer,  who  took  little  children  into  his  arms  and  blessed 
them,  has  given  his  consent  that  the  child  of  her  love,  the  object 
of  her  hopes  and  prayers,  should  be  torn  from  her  embraces, 
and  sold  in  the  market  to  the  highest  bidder,  to  put  money  in 

shipped  a  lot  of  forty-three  men  and  women.  Mr.  Freeman,  informing  one  of 
his  correspondents  of  the  state  of  the  market,  writes  (Sunday,  Sept.  21, 
1839),  "  I  bought  a  boy  yesterday  16  years  old,  and  likely,  weighing  110  pounds, 
at  $700.  I  sold  a  likely  girl,  12  years  old,  at  $500.  I  bought  a  man  yester 
day,  20  years  old.  six  feet  high,  at  $820;  one  to-day,  24  years  old,  at  $850, 
black  and  sleek  as  a  mole." 

And  are  these  brokers  in  human  flesh,  these  butchers  of  human  hearts, 
bad  men  ?  For  aught  that  appears,  they  are  as  sound  Churchmen,  and  as 
heavenly-minded  Christians,  except  in  trading  in  negroes  on  Sunday,  as 
Bishops  Ives  and  Freeman  themselves  ;  they  are  but  reducing  to  practice 
the  doctrines  taught  by  these  Right  Reverend  Fathers.  If  slavery  be  right, 
we  must  indeed  wait  for  a  new  revelation  before  we  pronounce  the  slave-trade 
wrong.  No  doubt  the  trade  occasions  painful  separations,  but  the  rights  of 
property  are  paramount  to  the  feelings  of  nature.  The  Presbyterian  Synod  of 
Kentucky,  some  time  since,  published  an  address,  in  which  they  thus  noticed 
the  domestic  slave-trade  :  "  The  members  of  a  slave  family  may  (by  law)  be 
forcibly  separated,  so  that  they  shall  never  more  meet  again  till  the  final 
judgment.  And  cupidity  often  induces  the  masters  to  practise  what  the  law 
allows.  Brothers  and  sisters,  parents  and  children,  husbands  and  wives,  are 
torn  asunder,  and  permitted  to  see  each  other  no  more.  These  acts  are  daily 
occurring  in  the  midst  of  us.  There  is  not  a  neighborhood  where  these  heart 
rending  scenes  are  not  displayed.  There  is  not  a  village  or  road  that  does 
not  behold  the  sad  procession  of  manacled  outcasts,  where  chains  and  mourn 
ful  countenances  tell  that  they  are  exiled  by  force  from  all  that  their  hearts 
hold  dear."  And  the  Synod  speak  of  the  iniquity  of  the  system  !  But  why 
is  it  more  iniquitous  to  fetter  slaves  than  any  other  animals  that  we  send  to 
market  ?  Why  more  cruel  to  separate  a  child  than  a  calf  from  its  mother  ? 


REPROOF    OF   THE     AMERICAN    CHURCH.  431 

the  pocket  of  another  ?  *  Let  the  experiment  be  made,  and  if 
that  mother  be  a  Christian,  she  will  thank  God  that  she  knows 
and  loves  her  Saviour  too  well  to  believe  such  a  blasphemy. 

And  by  what  process  do  our  masters  in  Israel  justify  Ameri 
can  slavery  ?  Do  they  show  its  accordance  with  the  divine 
attributes  —  with  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  —  with  the  cultivation 
of  holiness  —  with  the  glory  of  God  —  with  individual  happiness 
and  national  prosperity  ?  Oh,  no  —  they  appeal  to  Hebrew 
servitude,  and  to  a  few  insulated  texts  in  the  New  Testament. 

There  is  something  appalling  in  the  passionate  eagerness  with 
which  certain  ministers  of  Christ  rush  forward  to  lay  the  blessed 
Scriptures  upon  the  altar  of  the  southern  Moloch.  We  wish  to 
do  these  men  no  injustice,  and  therefore  frankly  admit,  that  some 
persons  may  honestly  find  themselves  embarrassed  in  their 
endeavors  to  reconcile  certain  texts  with  the  obvious  cruelty  and 
injustice  of  human  bondage ;  and  we  as  frankly  confess  that  we 
shudder  at  the  very  idea  of  one  who  professes  himself  called  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  as  a  preacher  of  righteousness,  teaching  his 
people  that  American  slavery,  slavery  as  it  exists  in  North 
Carolina,  is  not  "  WRONG." 

The  moral  sense  of  every  man,  when  not  perverted  by  pecu 
niary  interest,  education,  or  authority,  is  itself  sufficient  to  con 
vince  him  of  the  iniquity  of  slavery.  The  Christian  student, 
therefore,  who  commences  the  Scriptural  examination  of  this 
subject  with  an  unclouded  judgment,  will  come  to  his  work  with 
a  firm  conviction,  that  every  attribute  of  slavery  is  opposed  to 
the  spirit  of  the  Gospel.  Hence,  he  would  be  restrained  from 
promptly  pronouncing  slavery  unscriptural  only  by  a  painful 
suspicion  that  certain  passages  in  the  Bible  lent  it  their  sanction. 
He  would,  however,  call  to  mind  that  there  were  some  things  in 
Scripture  confessedly  "  hard  to  be  understood,"  and  he  would 
cherish  the  hope  that  he  did  not  rightly  understand  those  which 
apparently  contradicted  the  character  of  God  and  the  general 
precepts  of  his  Word.  He  would,  therefore,  search  the  Scrip 
tures,  not  to  find  a  warrant  for  slavery,  but  to  reconcile  certain 

*  Benjamin  Davis,  a  slave-trader  in  Hamburg,  S.  C.,  advertised  in  the 
Charleston  papers,  for  sale,  "  SMALL  BOYS  WITHOUT  THEIR  MOTHERS." 


432  JAY'S  WORKS. 

obscure  texts  with  the  love  and  holiness  which  beam  from  every 
page. 

If  the  patriarchs  did,  indeed,  as  is  said,  hold  slaves,  he  would 
recollect  that  they  also  indulged  in  polygamy,  and  were,  in  sev 
eral  instances,  guilty  of  falsehood.* 

*  It  is  not  our  purpose  to  enter  at  large  into  the  Bible  argument,  but  mere 
ly  to  suggest  some  reasons  why  they  who  think  American  slavery  "  wrong," 
are  not  necessarily  impugners  of  "  Revelation."  It  might  be  inferred  from 
the  confidence  and  evident  delight  with  which  the  example  of  Abraham  is 
urged  in  vindication  of  our  "domestic  institution,"  that  the  father  of  the 
faithful  was  also  the  father  of  all  who  traffic  in  human  flesh.  If  he  was, 
indeed,  a  slave-holder,  he  was  still  very  far  from  being  the  type  of  a  Southern 
planter.  While  childless,  he  designated  one  of  his  slaves  as  his  future  heir. 
He  was  afterwards  prevented,  only  by  Divine  appointment,  from  making  the 
son  of  the  bondwoman  heir  icith  the  son  by  promise,  and  was  consoled  by 
the  assurance  that  the  former  should  become  the  father  of  princes,  and  the 
founder  of  a  great  nation.  He  moreover  entrusted  to  one  of  his  slaves,  the 
selection  of  a  wife  for  his  favorite  son.  The  three  hundred  and  eighteen 
servants  "born  in  his  house,"  the  Bishop  of  Texas  asserts  were  "slaves." 
Still  they  were  men  whom  he  armed  and  led  to  battle.  They,  with  their 
parents,  brothers,  sisters,  wives  and  children,  must  have  formed  a  "  gang  " 
of  about  two  thousand  in  number.  Yet  we  find  the  master  of  this  multitude 
of  slaves  leaving  his  guests  to  catch  a  calf  to  provide  dinner  for  them,  while 
the  mistress  of  this  goodly  household  occupied  herself  in  kneading  and 
baking  cakes  for  her  company  !  A  pro-slavery  theory  can  alone  blind  us  to 
the  evidence  afforded  by  these  facts  ;  that  Abraham  was  the  chief  of  a  clan 
or  tribe,  and  that  the  expression,  "  born  in  his  own  house,"  only  indicates 
that  the  three  hundred  and  eighteen  were  not  strangers  whom  he  employed 
on  the  occasion,  but  members  of  the  community  acknowledging  him  as  its 
head. 

That  there  was  a  species  of  servitude  in  the  East  at  an  early  period,  as  at 
present,  is  true  ;  it  is  also  true  that  it  was  of  a  very  different  character  from 
that  which  prevailed  in  the  West.  Our  slavery  belongs  to  the  Western  sys 
tem.  In  a  late  work  on  Egypt,  by  Clot  Bey,  the  distinction  between  the  two 
systems  is  thus  noticed  :  "  There  is  a  prodigious  difference  between  American 
slavery,  and  servitude  among  the  Orientals.  With  them,  the  institution  is 
neither  cruel  or  disgraceful.  It  does  not  regard  the  slave  as  a  thing,  a  mate 
rial  object,  as  did  the  Roman  law.  It  does  not  make  him  a  mere  article  of 
import  or  export,  a  matter  of  speculation,  a  simple  machine,  in  fact,  whose 
efficiency  is  estimated  as  horse  power.  The  West  Indian  regards  in  the  negro 
only  his  corporeal  value,  and  forgets  in  him  the  intellectual  man  ;  he  robs 
him  of  his  nature.  The  Mussulman,  on  the  contrary,  always  beholds  a  MAN 
in  his  slave,  and  treats  him  in  such  a  manner,  that  we  may  say  of  Oriental 
slavery,  that  it  is  often  a  real  adoption,  and  always  an  admission  into  an  ex 
tended  family  circle. 

"  Oriental  servitude  honorably  contrasts  with  our  slavery,  and  above  all  by 
its  respect  for  the  dignity  of  human  nature.  The  slave,  in  Turkey,  is  not 
humiliated  by  his  condition  :  he  often  proudly  boasts  that  he  is  of  the  family 
of  such  a  Bey,  or  such  a  Pasha,  and  gives  his  master  the  title  of  father.  He 
knows,  moreover,  that  he  is  not  bound  for  ever  to  his  station  by  a  chain  of 
iron.  He  has  before  him  examples  sufficient  to  raise  his  ambition,  and  to 
swell  his  soul  with  the  hope  of  more  brilliant  destinies."  The  author  then 
gives  various  instances  of  slaves  who  had  risen  to  high  dignities  ;  and  men 
tions  two  sons-in-law  of  the  present  Sultan,  Avho  had  both  been  slaves,  and 
adds,  "  In  Egypt,  the  superior  officers  are,  for  the  most  part,  manumitted 
slaves."  See  Apercu  general  stir  U '  Egypte,  par  A.  B.  Clot  Bey,  1840.  Tom. 
i,  p.  269. 


REPROOF    OF    THE     AMERICAN    CHURCH.  433 

If  the  Jews  were,  indeed,  allowed  to  buy  slaves  of  the  heathens 
around  them,  we  must  recollect  that  they  were  also  allowed,  nay, 
even  commanded  to  destroy  the  inhabitants  of  Canaan,  men, 
women  and  children  ;  and  slavery  was  but  a  commutation  of 
the  punishment  of  death  to  which  God  had  sentenced  them  for 
their  sins.  Such  examples  are  not  precedents  for  us  under  the 
Gospel  dispensation  without  a  special  warrant.  But  is  it  cer 
tain  that  the  "  bondmen  "  (so  called  by  our  translators,  but  not 
distinguished  in  the  original  from  servants*)  were  slaves  ?  If  so, 
they  were  the  property  of  their  masters.  Now,  how  was  their 
property  acquired  ?  The  heathen  around,  even  their  very 
infants,  might  be  slaughtered,  but  "  He  that  stealeth  a  man  and 
selletli  him,  or  if  he  be  found  in  his  hand,  he  shall  surely  be  put 
to  death."  Hence  the  Jewish  slaves  were  to  be  purchased,  but 
of  whom?  If  the  slave-trade  constituted  part  of  the  Jewish 
commerce,  strange  it  is  that  we  hear  nothing  of  the  slave  market 
in  Israel.  We  know  that  the  Jews  sold  themselves.  "  If  a  so- 
journer  or  stranger  wax  rich  by  thoe,  and  thy  brother  that 
dwelleth  by  him  wax  poor,  and  sell  himself  unto  the  stranger  or 
sojourner  by  thee,"  &c.  Hence  it  is  possible  that  as  poor  Jews 
sold  themselves  to  rich  strangers,  poor  strangers  might  sell 
themselves  to  rich  Jews.  There  is  no  evidence  that  the  heathen 
in  Palestine  had  slaves  to  sell,  but  many  among  them  might  find 
it  convenient  to  enter  into  Jewish  families  as  domestics.  The 
servitude  of  both  Jewish  and  heathen  servants  seems  to  have 
been  limited  to  the  year  of  Jubilee.  That  this  servitude  was 
not  founded  on  the  idea  of  property  appears  from  the  prohibition? 
"  Thou  shalt  not  deliver  unto  his  master,  the  servant  which  is 
escaped  from  his  master  to  thec"  (Deut.  xxiii,  15).  This  law, 
whether  the  fugitive  was  a  Jew  or  a  heathen,  is  utterly  irrecon 
cilable  with  common  honesty,  supposing  the  servant  to  have 

*  "  The  word  in  the  original,  sometimes  rendered  bondman,  and  sometimes 
servant,  is  Obcd.  It  is  applied  to  Christ,  "  Behold  my  servant  whom  1  up 
hold,"  Isaiah,  xxiv,  1.  It  is  applied  to  King  Ilehoboam,  1  Kings,  xii,  7. 
Ziba,  Saul's  Obed,  had  himself  twenty  Obeds,  2  Samuel,  ix,  10.  There  is  no 
word  in  Hebrew  for  slave,  as  distinct  from  servant.  We  find,  1  Chron.  ii,  34, 
that  Sheshan,  the  head  of  one  of  the  families  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  gave  his 
daughter  to  wife,  to  his  servant,  an  Egyptian  ;  and  so  far  was  any  disgrace 
attached  in  consequence  to  their  children,  that  the  son  of  this  very  daughter 
was  enrolled  among  "  the  valiant  men  "  of  David's  army,  1  Chron.  ii,  41. 

37* 


434  JAY'S  WORKS. 

been  a  mere  chattel ;  and  certainly  belonged  to  a  very  different 
code  of  morals  from  that  which  enjoins,  "  If  thou  meet  thy 
enemy's  ox  or  his  ass  going  astray,  thou  shalt  surely  bring  it 
back  to  him  again." 

On  turning  to  the  New  Testament,  our  inquirer  would  recollect, 
that  it  was  written  at  a  time,  when,  among  the  Romans,  slavery 
and  the  exhibitions  of  the  amphitheatre  were  systems  of  extraor 
dinary  cruelty  and  of  human  butchery,  and  that,  although  both 
are  alluded  to,  neither  is  expressly  condemned.  True  it  is,  that 
St.  Paul  induced  a  servant  to  return  to  his  master.  If  the  ser 
vant  was  a  freeman,  the  case  proves  nothing.  If  he  was  a  slave, 
the  apostle  required  his  instant  manumission,  by  commanding 
the  master  to  receive  him,  "  Not  now  as  a  servant,  but  above  a 
servant,  a  brother  beloved  ;  receive  him  as  myself"  * 

There  are  instances  in  which  persons,  who  perhaps  held 
slaves,  are  spoken  of  with  commendation,  but  not  on  that  account. 
None  of  the  churches  or  individuals  commended  in  the  apostolic 
epistles  were  faultless,  and  it  would  be  most  monstrous  to  infer 
from  a  general  commendation,  an  apostolic  sanction  of  every 
error  or  sin  of  which  they  might  be  guilty. 

Were  it  possible  to  imagine  a  kind  of  slavery  divested  of  all 
sinful  attributes,  and  consistent  alike  with  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  good  of  man,  Bishops  Freeman  and  Ives  well  know  that 
such  is  not  the  character  of  American  slavery.  If  "  slavery  a? 
it  exists  at  present,"  in  the  Dioceses  of  the.se  two  Bishops,  is 
indeed  acceptable  to  HIM  who  proclaims  himself,  "  The  Lord, 
the  Lord  God,  merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffering  and  abun 
dant  in  goodness  and  truth,"  then,  indeed,  is  the  Bible  a  riddle, 
and  its  morality  a  paradox.  Be  it  so ;  a  title  to  negro  slaves 
must  at  all  hazards  be  found  in  the  Bible.  The  very  character 
of  the  Southern  priesthood  for  honesty  depends  on  its  production.! 
"What  is  wanting  in  proof,  must  be  supplied  by  bold  assertion, 

*  St.  Paul  wrote  by  Onesimus  to  the  Church  at  Colosse,  and  in  his  Epistle 
speaks  of  him  as  "  a  faithful  and  beloved  brother,  who  is  one  of  you,"  Col. 
iv,  9. 

f  The  clergy  of  the  South,  of  all  denominations,  are  generally  slave-holders. 
A  member  of  the  House  of  Bishops  is  said,  in  a  late  western  newspaper,  to 
own  one  hundred  and  seventy  slaves. 


REPROOF    OP   THE    AMERICAN    CHURCH.  435 

and  all  Christendom  beyond  the  slave-region  shall  be  accused  of 
presumption,  for  not  waiting  for  a  new  revelation,  before  they 
dare  to  pronounce  such  slavery  as  exists  in  North  Carolina 
wrong  ! 

And  shall  we  be  any  longer  insulted  with  the  assertion,  that 
the  preached  Gospel  is  the  divinely  appointed  means  of  abolish 
ing  slavery  ?  Most  certain  it  is,  that  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel, 
carried  into  universal  practice,  would  relieve  the  human  family 
from  every  moral  evil  with  which  it  is  afflicted ;  but  it  is  utterly 
false  that  the  ministrations  of  our  own,  or  any  other  Church,  will 
correct  a  single  vice,  independent  of  the  character  of  its  ministers, 
the  examples  they  set,  and  the  doctrines  they  preach.  Would 
the  teachings  of  a  thousand  Dr.  Freemans  loosen  the  fetters  of 
a  single  slave  ?  No  less  than  forty  missionaries  are  supported 
by  our  Board  of  Missions  in  the  slave  regions.  Dare  we  hope 
they  have  induced  one  master  to  let  his  bondmen  go  free? 
While  the  southern  clergy  vindicate  slavery  as  a  Christian  insti 
tution,  they  are  in  danger  of  producing  a  result  which  they  as 
little  expect  as  desire.  "  Should  the  priesthood,"  says  a  south 
ern  writer,  once  himself  a  slave-holder,  "  should  the  priesthood 
succeed  in  convincing  the  world  that  slavery  is  the  doctrine  of 
the  New  Testament,  then  will  INFIDELITY  become  the  true 
religion  of  mankind  —  and  not  till  then."  Says  another  south 
ern  writer,  and  apparently  a  pious  Christian,  "  I  distinctly  avow, 
than  when  I  can  be  brought  to  believe  that  American  slavery, 
taken  as  a  system,  is  sustained  by  the  teachings  of  Holy  Writ,  I 
must  cease  to  be  a  believer  in  the  Bible." 

But,  blessed  be  God !  his  priesthood  has,  in  all  ages  of  the 
Church,  afforded  the  most  glorious  illustrations  of  fearless  devo 
tion  to  duty,  and  of  self-denying  benevolence,  that  the  world  has 
ever  witnessed.  While  some  have  claimed  to  hold  their  slaves 
as  monarchs  their  crowns,  "  by  the  grace  of  God,"  many  have 
witnessed  a  good  confession  against  human  bondage.  In  the 
Church  of  England  at  the  present  day,  there  is  not  probably  a 
bishop,  priest,  or  deacon,  who  would  endorse  the  theology  of  our 
Texan  bishop.  But  then  we  are  told  by  the  slave-holders,  and 
their  tools,  the  northern  demagogues,  that  England  is  anti-slavery 


436  JAY'S  WORKS. 

through  envy  of  our  prosperity  !     Let  us,  then,  hear  the  English 
bishops,  when  such  a  motive  could  have  no  existence. 

BISHOP  WARBURTON,  in  a  sermon  preached  hi  1776  against 
slavery  and  the  slave-trade,  exclaims, 

"  Gracious  God !  to  talk,  as  in  herds  of  cattle,  of  property  in  rational 
creatures  —  creatures  endowed  with  all  our  faculties,  possessing  all  our 
qualities  but  that  of  color  —  our  brethren  both  by  nature  and  grace, 
shocks  all  the  feelings  of  humanity  and  the  dictates  of  common  sense. 
Nature  created  man  free,  and  grace  invites  him  to  assert  his  freedom'9 

BISHOP  BURGESS,  in   a   pamphlet  against  the  slave-trade, 

1789,  says : 

"  Such  oppression  (West  India  slavery)  and  such  traffic  must  be 
swept  away  at  one  blow.  Such  horrid  offences  against  God  and  nature 
can  admit  of  no  medium.  If  no  British  subject  is  exempt  from  the 
duty  of  doing  everything  in  his  place  towards  preventing  the  continu 
ance  of  so  great  a  political  as  well  as  moral  evil,  more  especially  are  not 
those  subjects,  whose  business  it  is  to  teach  what  is  every  man's  concern 
to  know,  the  interpreters  of  God's  Word,  which  is  so  frequently  violated 
by  West  India  slavery  and  its  consequences." 

BISHOP  PORTEUS  declared  in  the  House  of  Lords,  1806,  in 
answering  certain  Scriptural  arguments  in  behalf  of  slavery, 
"  There  was  no  such  thing  as  perpetual  slavery  under  the  Old 
or  New  Testament ; "  and  he  showed  that  all  Hebrew  servants 
were  set  at  liberty  every  seventh  year,  and  all  others  at  the 
Jubilee. 

THE  BISHOP  OF  ST.  ASAPH,  the  same  year,  asserted  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  that 

"  The  principle  of  perpetual  slavery  is  totally  inconsistent  with  the 
Jewish  law.  When  we  come  down  to  Christianity,  we  find  dealers  in 
slaves  are  held  among  the  worst  of  the  human  race.  St.  Paul,  in  his 
Epistle  to  Timothy,  tells  us  what  the  dealers  in  slaves  are,  and  who  are 
their  companions.  The  slave-dealers  are  called  « stealers  of  men,'  and 
their  companions  are  liars,  perjurers,  murderers,  and  parricides." 

BISHOP  HORSELY,  in  1799,  with  Christian  boldness,  rebuked 
the  nobles  of  Britain  for  their  wicked  toleration  of  the  slave- 
trade  ;  and  vindicated  the  Gospel  of  Christ  from  the  aspersions 
of  those  who  represented  it  as  a  shield  for  cruelty  and  injustice. 
After  showing  that  the  "  men-stealers "  classed  in  the  Bible 


REPROOF    OF   THE    AMERICAN    CHURCH.  437 

with  murderers  of  fathers  and  of  mothers,  were  in  fact,  according 
to  the  true  meaning  of  the  Greek  word,  "  slave-traders,"  he  pro 
ceeded  : 

"  We  have  reason  to  conclude,  from  the  mention  of  *  slave-traders,' 
by  St.  Paul,  that  if  any  of  them  should  ever  find  their  way  to  heaven, 
they  must  go  thither  in  company  with  murderers  and  parricides.  My 
lords,  I  do  certainly  admit  that  there  is  no  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the 
Bible,  in  explicit  terms,  such  as  these  words,  '  thou  shalt  not  have  a  slave,' 
or  Hhou  shalt  not  hold  any  one  in  slaverv.'  There  is  no  explicit 
reprobation  of  slavery  by  name.  My  lords,  if  I  were  to  say  there  was 
no  occasion  for  any  such  prohibition, 'because  slavery  is  condemned  by 
something  anterior  to  either  the  Christian  or  the  Mosaic  dispensation,  I 
could  support  the  assertion  by  grave  authorities.  Beware,  my  lords, 
how  you  are  persuaded  to  bring  under  the  opprobrious  name  of  fanat 
icism  the  regard  you  owe  to  the  great  duties  of  justice  and  mercy,  for 
the  neglect  of  which,  if  you  should  neglect  them,  you  will  be  answera 
ble  to  that  tribunal,  where  no  prevarication  of  witnesses  can  misinform 
the  Judge,  where  no  subtility  of  an  advocate,  miscalling  the  names  of 
things,  and  putting  evil  for  good,  and  good  for  evil,  can  mislead  the 
judgment." 

"  Slavery,"  said  LORD  MANSFIELD,  "  is  so  odious  that  noth 
ing  but  positive  law  can  sustain  it."  His  lordship  little  suspected 
that  a  time  was  approaching  when  the  CHURCH  would  afford  it 
more  efficient  support  than  even  positive  law,  and  would  herself 
look  to  it  for  support  in  return.  One  of  our  church  periodicals 
has  announced  that  "  the  Bishop  of  Georgia,  in  his  Montpelier 
Institution,  is  testing  the  sufficiency  of  slave-labor  to  support  it. 
It  is  not  unusual  to  see  in  the  southern  papers,  notices  of  slaves 
to  be  sold  on  account  of  ecclesiastical  corporations.  Bishop 
Wilberforce,  in  his  History,  refers  to  a  proposal  by  the  editor  of 
the  "  Spirit  of  Missions "  to  establish  a  mission  school  to  be 
supported  by  slaves,  who  shall  be  induced,  by  the  promise  of 
prospective  emancipation,  to  perform  so  much  extra  labor  in 
the  course  of  SIXTEEN  years  as  to  yield  a  profit  of  one  hundred 
per  cent,  on  the  capital  invested,  over  and  above  the  ordinary 
profits  extorted  by  common  taskmasters.  This  revolting  scheme, 
in  which  it  was  intended  that  the  slaves  would  work  two  hours 
before  sunrise,  and  two  hours  after  sunset,  in  all  sixteen  hours 
out  of  the  four  and  twenty,  and  this  for  sixteen  successive  years, 
was  pressed  upon  the  Church  in  an  official  magazine,  published 


438  JAY'S  WORKS. 

in  New  York  under  the  supervision  of  the  Missionary  Commit" 
tee,  and  by  an  editor  holding  his  appointment  from  the  Board  of 
Missions,  including  the  bishops,  and  other  representatives  of 
the  Church  elected  by  the  General  Convention.  In  about  three 
months  after  this  publication,  the  Board  assembled,  and  written 
remonstrances  were  presented  to  them,  beseeching  them,  for  the 
honor  of  the  Church,  and  the  cause  of  religion  and  humanity,  to 
disavow  the  conduct  of  their  editor.  These  remonstrances  ex 
cited  warm  debates,  not  unmingled  with  southern  arrogance. 
It  was  impossible  for  the  Board  to  express  disapprobation  of 
the  plan  without  indirectly  censuring  Bishops  Ives  and  Elliott. 
If  slaves  be  indeed  property,  what  objection  can  there  be  to 
converting  their  bones  and  muscles  into  money  for  the  Church  ? 
To  condemn  the  editor,  would  offend  the  pro-slavery  Bishops 
and  clergy ;  expressly  to  approve  his  conduct,  would  raise  a 
tempest  at  the  North.  So,  policy  was  substituted  for  godly  sin 
cerity,  and  cunning  for  wisdom.  The  Board  expunged  from 
their  minutes  the  proceedings  had  on  the  memorials,  and  avoid 
ing  all  intelligible  allusion  to  the  scheme  which  had  led  to  them, 
ordered  the  following  words  to  be  printed  on  the  future  numbers 
of  their  own  magazine : 

"  It  is  to  be  understood  by  the  readers  of  this  periodical,  that  the 
Board  of  Missions  are  not  responsible  for  the  expression  of  editorial 
opinions,  but  simply  for  the  accuracy  of  facts  connected  with  their 
operations." 

But  lest  even  this  extraordinary  disclaimer  should  be  supposed 
to  involve  a  concealed  censure  on  the  late  "  editorial  opinions," 
the  resolution  recommending  it,  and  which  was  introduced  by  a 
Bishop  from  a  slave  State,  as  chairman  of  a  committee,  was  pre 
ceded  by  another,  declaring,  "  That,  in  the  opinion  of  this  Board, 
the  Spirit  of  Missions  has  been  conducted,  during  the  year  past, 
with  commendable  diligence  and  ability  ; "  and  the  report  of  the 
committee  accompanying  these  resolutions  is  careful  to  state  that 
the  periodical  in  question  is  "  gaining  reputation  and  influence, 
and  that  if  it  continues  to  be  conducted  with  the  same  ability 
which  it  has  of  late  exhibited,  it  will  become  a  powerful  auxiliary 
to  the  cause." 


REPROOF    OF    THE     AMERICAN    CHURCH.  439 

The  subject  of  slavery  had  been  brought  directly  and  promi 
nently  before  the  Church,  by  her  own  appropriate  officers.  Mon 
ey,  entrusted  to  the  Board  for  missionary  purposes,  had  been 
employed  through  the  official  magazine,  to  advocate  the  cause 
of  human  bondage,  to  condemn  emancipation  as  "ruinous,  and 
forbidden  by  common  sense  and  Christian  prudence,"  and  to  put 
in  motion  a  machinery  by  which  money  was  to  be  extorted  for 
the  coffers  of  the  Church,  from  the  cruel  and  extraordinary  toil 
of  miserable  slaves.  The  memorialists  had  virtually  asked  the 
reverend  and  right  reverend  fathers  of  the  Church,  in  council 
assembled,  Do,  or  do  you  not,  approve  of  this  conduct  of  your 
agent  ?  Te  this  interrogatory,  the  reverend  gentlemen  thought 
it  expedient  to  answer  neither  yes  nor  no  ;  but  in  the  notice  they 
ordered  to  be  in  future  printed  on  their  magazine,  they  did  return 
a  most  disingenuous  and  unworthy  reply.  No  human  being 
ever  supposed  that  the  members  of  the  Board,  scattered  through 
out  the  Union,  were  responsible  for  the  publication  or  "  expression" 
in  New  York,  of  opinions  of  which  they  could  have  no  previous 
knowledge,  and  of  course  no  power  to  prevent.  Did  the  Board 
intend  to  enunciate  so  bold  a  truism  as  this  ?  As  well  might 
they  have  given  notice  that  they  were  not  responsible  for  any 
heresy  or  immorality  of  which  their  officers  might  hereafter  be 
guilty.  When  examined  with  a  critical  microscope,  the  disclaim 
er  has  reference  to  the  "  expression  "  —  the  printing  of  opinions 
in  New  York.  But  in  the  plain,  obvious,  popular  import  of  the 
notice,  the  disclaimer  has  reference  to  the  opinions,  after  they 
are  expressed  and  printed.  In  this  sense  alone,  had  the  dis 
claimer  any  reference  to  the  subject  which  induced  it.  Nay,  the 
Board  intended  it  to  be  so  understood ;  for  they  thought  proper 
to  order  a  resolution  to  be  sent  to  the  memorialists,  who  had 
"  complained  of  the  tendency  of  an  editorial  article  in  the  March 
number  of  the  Spirit  of  Missions"  (carefully  avoiding  mention 
ing  in  the  minutes,  the  subject  of  the  article),  declaring  that  the 
Board  had  never  "  held  itself  responsible  for  the  opinions  ex 
pressed  by  the  editors  of  the  Spirit  of  Missions,"  and  had  direct 
ed  "  this  assertion  of  irresponsibility  to  be  distinctly  placed  upon 
the  cover  of  the  future  numbers  of  this  periodical." 


440 

On  tins  assertion  of  "  irresponsibility  "  we  take  issue,  and  af 
firm  that  the  Board  is  responsible  to  the  community,  to  the 
Church,  and  to  God,  for  the  opinions  of  an  editor  appointed  by 
themselves,  under  their  control,  paid  out  of  funds  entrusted  to 
their  care,  published  in  an  official  magazine,  and  printed  at  the  ex 
pense  of  missionary  contributions.  What !  will  the  Board  tell 
us  that  their  editor  may  make  their  magazine  a  vehicle  for  the 
dissemination  of  obscenity  and  infidelity,  and  that  it  is  no  concern 
of  theirs  ?  That  he  may  disparage  the  Church,  insult  her  bish 
ops,  and  deny  her  doctrines,  and  that  they  are  not  responsible  ? 
But  should  he  misdate  a  letter,  or  omit  half  a  dollar  in  the 
acknowledgment  of  a  donation,  then,  then  indeed,  they  will  not 
shrink  from  responsibility. 

Surely  the  bishops  who  concurred  in  this  "  assertion  of  irre 
sponsibility,"  forgot  for  the  moment  their  consecration  vow,  "  to 
be  ready  with  all  faithful  vigilance  to  drive  away  from  the 
Church  all  strange  and  erroneous  doctrines  contrary  to  God's 
word." 

This  disclaimer,  like  most  cunning  measures,  was  a  sacrifice 
of  duty  to  present  expediency ;  a  sacrifice  which,  however  com 
mon  with  politicians,  we  had  no  right  to  expect  from  such  a  body 
of  men.  The  truth  is,  the  Board  were  worried  by  the  memorials. 
To  take  no  notice  of  them  would  probably  increase  "  agitation" 
— to  approve  the  course  of  the  editor,  would  disgust  many  at  the 
North — to  condemn  it,  would  offend  all  at  the  South.  Instead 
of  manfully  breaking  down  this  triple  hedge,  within  which  they 
found  themselves  enclosed,  they  determined  to  crawl  through  it, 
and  for  this  purpose,  disincumbered  themselves  of  a  responsibil 
ity  which  God  and  the  Church  had  commanded  them  to  bear. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  another,  but  a  kindred  subject.  Whatever 
may  be  the  struggles  of  the  slave-holder  to  wring  from  the  Bible 
a  title  to  his  slaves,  no  reader  of  the  volume  of  inspiration, 
whether  Christian  or  infidel,  has  professed  to  discover  in  it  a 
warrant  for  the  establishment  of  CASTE  in  the  Church  of  God. 
However  much  we  may  be  inclined  to  appeal  to  the  Scriptures 
for  a  license  to  despise,  insult,  and  oppress  our  fellow-Christians, 
on  account  of  their  race  or  natural  features,  we  are  effectually 


REPROOF    OF    THE     AMERICAN    CHURCH.  441 

deterred  by  the  declarations  that  one  God  hath  created  us — that 
we  have  all  one  Father — that  in  Christ  Jesus  there  is  neither 
Jew  nor  Gentile,  Greek  nor  barbarian,  bond  nor  free ;  and  by 
the  commands  to  do  good  unto  all  men,  and  to  honor  oil  men. 
Hence  the  institution  of  CASTE  in  the  Church,  and  the  obloquy, 
injustice,  and  cruelty  connected  with  it,  are  not  rested,  like 
slavery,  on  the  alleged  consent  of  Christ  and  his  apostles ;  but 
simply  and  frankly  on  pecuniary  interest,  personal  antipathy,  and 
popular  prejudice. 

So  accustomed  have  we  been  from  childhood  to  the  distinction 
of  caste,  arising  from  color  —  so  universally  is  this  distinction 
maintained  not  merely  in  the  Church,  but  in  all  the  departments 
of  society,  that  we  have,  for  the  most  part,  become  callous  to  its 
iniquity ;  and  our  understandings  can  with  difficulty  be  brought 
to  believe  that  the  merciful  precepts  of  Christ's  Gospel  were 
intended  to  govern  our  intercourse  with  men  of  dark,  as  well  as 
of  white  complexions.  But  although  we  may  be  insensible  to 
the  cruelty  of  caste,  it  is  otherwise  with  its  victims. 

The  Rev.  T.  S.  Wright,  a  liberally  educated  colored  clergy 
man,  thus  briefly  enumerates  some  of  the  consequences  of  th&t 
system,  which  our  Church  has  been  so  active  and  zealous  in 
maintaining. 

"  No  man  can  really  understand  this  prejudice  unless  he  feels  it  crush 
ing  him  to  dust,  because  it  is  matter  of  feeling.  It  has  bolts,  screws, 
and  bars,  wherever  the  colored  man  goes.  It  has  bolts  in  all  the  schools 
and  colleges.  The  colored  parent,  with  the  same  soul  as  the  white 
parent,  sends  his  child  to  the  seats  of  learning,  and  he  finds  the  door 
bolted,  and  sits  down  to  weep  beside  his  boy.  Prejudice  stands  at  the 
door  and  bars  him  out.  Does  the  child  of  the  colored  man  show  a  tal 
ent  for  mechanics  ?  The  heart  of  the  parent  beats  with  hope.  He 
sees  the  children  of  the  white  man  engaged  in  employment,  and  he 
trusts  there  is  a  door  open  for  his  boy  to  get  an  honest  living,  and  be 
come  a  useful  member  of  society.  But  when  he  comes  to  the  workshop 
with  his  child,  he  finds  a  bolt  there.  But  even  suppose  he  can  get  this 
first  bolt  removed,  he  finds  other  bars.  Let  him  be  ever  so  skilled  as 
a  mechanic,  up  starts  prejudice  and  says,  '  I  wont  work  in  the  shop,  if 
you  do.'  Here  he  is  scourged  by  prejudice,  and  has  to  go  back  and 
sink  down  to  some  of  the  employments  which  white  men  leave  for  the 
most  degraded.  He  hears  of  the  death  of  a  child  from  home,  and  he 
goes  in  a  stage  or  steamboat.  His  money  is  received,  but  he  is  scourged 
by  prejudice.  If  he  is  sick,  he  can  have  no  bed ;  he  is  driven  on  deck. 
Money  will  not  buy  for  him  the  comforts  it  gets  for  all  who  have  not 

38 


442  JAY'S  WORKS. 

his  complexion.  He  turns  to  some  white  friend,  and  he  says,  '  Submit, 
it  is  an  ordinance  of  God,  you  must  be  humble/  I  have  felt  this.  As 
a  minister,  I  have  been  called  to  pass  often  up  and  down  the  North 
River  in  steamboats.  Many  a  night  have  I  walked  the  deck,  and  not 
been  able  to  lie  down  in  a  bed.*  Prejudice  would,  indeed,  turn  money 
to  dross,  where  it  was  offered  for  these  comforts  by  a  colored  man. 
Thus  prejudice  scourges  us  from  the  table,  it  scourges  us  from  the  cabin, 
from  the  stage-coach,  and  from  the  bed.  Wherever  we  go,  it  has  for 
us  bolts,  bars,  and  rods.  Even  at  the  communion  table,  the  colored 
man  can  only  partake  of  the  crumbs  after  the  others  have  been  served. 
This  prejudice  drives  the  colored  man  from  religion.  I  have  often 
heard  my  brethren  say,  they  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  such  a  re 
ligion.  They  are  driven  aAvay,  and  go  to  infidelity ;  for  even  the  infi 
dels  at  Tammany  Hall  make  no  distinction  on  account  of  color." 

That  this  prejudice  may  drive  some  of  the  sufferers  into  in 
fidelity  is  probable ;  since  it  has  been  a  common  mistake  in  all 
ages,  to  judge  of  Christianity,  not  by  its  own  inspired  records, 
but  by  the  conduct  of  a  portion  of  its  fallible  ministers.  And 
he  who  is  led  to  believe  that  American  slavery,  and  its  detestable 
offspring,  American  caste,  is  approved  of  by  Jesus  Christ,  may 
well  be  excused  for  questioning  the  divinity  of  his  mission. 

Although  caste  had  long  existed  among  us  in  practice,  the  ex 
clusion  of  Mr.  Crummell  from  the  General  Theological  Semi 
nary  was  the  first  instance  of  its  recognition,  as  a  part  of  the 
ecclesiastical  polity  of  the  American  Church.  Mr.  Degrass, 
the  young  man  whose  affecting  journal  is  given  by  Bishop  Wil- 
berforce,  was  kept  out  of  the  Seminary  by  the  personal  influence 
and  authority  of  Bishop  Benjamin  Onderdonk.  But  in  Mr. 
Crummell,  the  bishop  found  a  more  impracticable  subject,  and  a 
petition  for  admission  was  presented  to  the  assembled  Trustees. 
The  statutes  of  the  institution  rendered  it  imperative  on  the 
Trustees  to  admit  all  applicants  possessing  certain  qualifications, 
and  these  qualifications  the  bishop  honestly  informed  the  Board. 
were  possessed  by  the  present  applicant.  The  Board,  under 
these  circumstances,  found  themselves  in  a  dilemma.  To  reject 
the  young  man  on  account  of  his  complexion  would  not  only  be 
illegal,  but  would  excite  remark,  invite  ridicule,  and  encourage 

*  The  writer  has  been  informed,  that  the  wife  of  Mr.  Wright  lost  her  life 
in  consequence  of  exposure  on  the  deck  of  a  steamboat,  being  denied  a  berth 
in  the  cabin,  on  account  of  her  complexion. 


REPROOF    OF   THE     AMERICAN    CHURCH.  443 

*  agitation ; "  and  on  the  other  hand,  to  admit  him,  would  irritate 
a  prejudice  which  Bishop  Onderdonk  had  admitted  to  Degrass 
was  "  unrighteous  ; "  and  might  also  hazard  the  loss  of  south 
ern  contributions  to  the  Seminary.  A  committee,  with  Bishop 
Henry  Onderdonk,  of  Pennsylvania,  as  chairman,  was  appointed 
to  consider  the  application  ;  and  their  report  was  more  dis 
tinguished  for  brevity  than  for  wisdom.  Without  assigning  a 
single  reason,  and  without  an  allusion  to  the  complexion  of  the 
applicant,  they  merely  recommended  "  that  the  prayer  of  the 
petitioner  be  not  granted."  The  report  was  adopted,  whereupon, 
Bishop  Doane,  of  New  Jersey,  asked  permission,  which  was  re 
fused,  to  enter  his  objections  on  the  minutes.  Hence  the  minutes 
merely  record  the  fact,  that  a  Mr.  Crummell  had  applied  for  ad 
mission  into  the  Seminary  and  was  denied.  They  afforded  no 
intimation  that  the  Trustees  had  violated  the  statutes,  no  hint 
that  the  rejected  candidate  wras  not  colored  like  themselves. 
Should  any  one  wonder  why  the  application  was  rejected,  the 
natural  presumption  would  be,  that  the  young  man  was  deficient 
in  his  literary  attainments  or  moral  character,  and  that  the  com 
mittee  who  reported  against  him  had  benevolently  refrained  from 
putting  his  delinquencies  upon  record.  But  Mr.  Crummell  was 
a  poor,  obscure  colored  man ;  there  was  no  probability  that  his 
ease  would  excite  inquiry,  or  ever  be  known.  Certainly  the 
management  of  the  Trustees  was  exceedingly  adroit.  Alas  for 
the  wisdom  of  the  wise,  and  the  understanding  of  the  prudent. 
In  a  short  time  the  proceedings  of  the  Board  were  exposed  and 
condemned  in  the  newspapers,  not  only  of  New  York,  but  of 
London,  and  now  form  a  conspicuous  and  indelible  portion  of 
the  "  History  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  America." 
The  Bishop  of  New  York  thought  it  expedient  to  vindicate  him 
self  in  a  newspaper  publication,  in  which  he  condescends  to  pro 
pitiate  the  "unrighteous  prejudice"  by  a  gratuitous  sneer  at 
amalgamation.  (!) 

Mr.  Crummell  sought  and  obtained  ordination  in  another  dio 
cese,  and  then  resolved  to  embrace  an  opportunity  that  offered, 
of  organizing  a  colored  church  in  Philadelphia.  He  accordingly 
repaired  to  that  city,  with  the  usual  letter  dismissory  from  his 


444  JAY'S  WORKS. 

late  diocese,  and  in  compliance  with  the  canon,  presented  it  to 
the  bishop.  We  can  readily  believe  that  this  last  gentleman  was 
not  gratified  at  finding  that  the  young  man,  who  on  his  recom 
mendation  had  been  excluded  from  the  Seminary,  now  claimed 
a  canonical  residence  in  his  own  diocese,  as  a  brother  minister 
of  the  Church.  The  canons  allowed  the  bishop  no  discretion. 
Mr.  CrummelPs  letter  was  unexceptionable,  and  by  the  laws  of 
the  Church,  he  became  entitled,  on  its  delivery,  to  all  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  a  clergyman  of  the  Diocese  of  Pennsylvania. 
But  the  bishop  was  as  independent  of  legal  restraints  in  Phila 
delphia,  as  he  had  been  in  New  York.  He  informed  Mr.  Crum 
mell  that  he  would  receive  his  letter,  only  on  the  condition  that 
he  would  pledge  himself,  in  his  own  behalf,  and  in  behalf  of  his 
Church,  should  he  succeed  in  raising  one,  never  to  apply  for  a 
seat  in  Convention ;  and  immediately  proposed  to  write  the 
pledge.  He  was  told  it  was  unnecessary,  as  the  pledge  could 
not  be  given.  He  then  positively  declared  he  would  not  receive 
him,  on  which  the  young  minister  intimated  his  intention  to 
return  to  the  diocese  he  had  just  left.  Here  again  was  an  em 
barrassing  dilemma.  To  disregard  a  dismissory  letter  from 
another  diocese,  and  to  send  back  the  bearer,  without  the  slight 
est  objection  being  made  to  his  character  or  conduct,  might  lead 
to  very  inconvenient  results,  and  would  unquestionably  cause 
much  "  agitation  ; "  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  admit  a  negro  to  a 
canonical  residence,  was  to  open  the  door  of  the  Convention  to  him, 
the  consequence  of  which  would  be,  that  a  minister  of  Christ, 
with  a  dark  complexion,  might  sit  in  the  Council  of  the  Church ! 
The  bishop,  to  escape  from  this  dilemma,  proposed  that  he  should 
inform  the  Convention  in  his  address  at  its  next  meeting,  that 
he  had  been  admitted  with  the  understanding  that  he  was  to 
have  no  seat  in  it.  Mr.  Crummell,  with  the  same  high  moral 
courage  which  had  hitherto  marked  his  course,  replied  that  he 
could  have  no  agency  in  the  matter.  Thwarted  in  his  attempts 
to  make  Mr.  Crummell  surrender  his  rights  as  a  clergyman,  the 
bishop  determined  that  others  should  wrest  them  from  him  ;  and 
consented  to  receive  the  dismissory  letter,  telling  him  that  he 
would  get  the  Convention  to  take  some  order  on  the  subject. 


REPROOF    OF   THE    AMERICAN    CHURCH.  445 

About  three  weeks  after  this  strange  conference,  the  Conven 
tion  of  the  Diocese  assembled,  and  the  bishop's  address  contained 
the  following  passage : 

"In the  Convention  of  1795,  it  was  declared  that  the  African  Church 
of  St.  Thomas,  in  this  city,  was  « not  entitled  to  send  a  clergyman  or 
deputies  to  the  Convention,  or  to  interfere  with  the  general  government 
of  the  Church.'  This  law  is  still  retained  in  our  8th  Revised  Regula 
tions.  The  peculiar  circumstances  which  required  this  restriction  may 
occur,  and  probably  will,  in  other  cases;  and  I  submit  for  your  consid 
eration  whether  it  will  not  be  proper  to  enact  a  similar  restriction  ap 
plicable  to  all  clergymen  and  congregations  in  this  diocese  under  like 
circumstances." 

It  does  really  seem  as  if  a  consciousness  of  shame  and  guilt 
drives  our  ecclesiastical  rulers,  when  perpetrating  oppression 
and  injustice  upon  colored  Christians,  to  hide  their  meaning  in 
unintelligible  and  deceptive  phraseology. 

We  here  learn  that  in  1795,  the  Convention  made  a  certain 
declaration,  which  to  all  appearance  was  judicial  and  not  legis 
lative,  that  a  particular  Church  was  not  entitled  to  a  representation 
in  the  Convention.  The  reasons  for  such  a  judgment  are  not 
given  —  they  may  have  been  good  or  bad,  but  the  judgment 
itself  was  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Convention,  since  every 
legislative  body  must  judge  of  the  qualifications  of  its  members, 
although  it  cannot  prescribe  them.  It  does  not  appear  that  the 
Convention  invaded  any  right,  or  did  more  than  refuse  to  ac 
knowledge  an  unlawful  claim. 

And  yet  from  the  fact  that  the  Church  thus  excluded  was  an 
African  one,  and  from  the  omission  of  the  reasons  on  which  the 
judgment  was  founded,  we  have  no  question  that  the  pretended 
declaration  was  a  high-handed  unconstitutional  enactment,  dis 
franchising  a  rector  and  his  congregation,  solely  on  account  of 
the  tincture  of  their  skins ;  and  that  the  Convention  were 
ashamed  to  place  upon  their  minutes  the  unchristian  motives  by 
which  they  were  tempted  to  trample  under  foot  the  constitutional 
rights  of  a  minister  of  Christ,  and  the  people  under  his  charge. 

Bishop  Onderdonk,  we  have  seen,  called  on  the  Convention 
to  enact  a  similar  restriction,  "  applicable  to  all  clergymen  and 
congregations,"  which  should  hereafter  be  in  "like  circum- 
38* 


446  JAY'S  WORKS. 

stances"  What  circumstances  ?  A  state  of  schism,  insubordi 
nation,  or  irregular  or  illegal  incorporation  ?  Oh  no  ;  he  meant 
having  black  skins,  but  was  ashamed  to  say  so. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  legislation  recommended  is  to  be 
prospective,  not  ex  post  facto.  No  clergyman  or  congregation, 
now  in  the  diocese,  is  to  be  affected  by  it.  No  case  now  calls 
for  this  restriction,  but  cases  "may  occur,  and  probably will" and 
it  is  best  to  be  prepared  for  contingencies.  All  this  is  painful. 
The  bishop,  while  uttering  the  words  we  have  quoted,  had  in 
his  possession  the  letter  dismissory  of  the  very  clergyman 
against  whom  the  proposed  restriction  was  aimed  ;  and  who,  by 
his  advice,  had  been  shut  out  of  the  Theological  Seminary,  and 
from  whom  he  had  vainly  endeavored  to  obtain  a  disgraceful 
surrender  of  his  rights  as  a  minister  of  the  Church.  Again,  in 
his  address,  he  tells  the  Convention,  "  Letters  dismissory  have 
been  received  and  accepted  by  me  as  follows,"  and  then  gives  a 
list  of  clergymen  received  from  other  dioceses ;  but  Mr.  Crum- 
mell's  name  is  not  among  them  ! 

The  powers  of  our  Conventions,  like  those  of  our  State  Legis 
latures,  are  limited  by  written  constitutions.  The  Fourth  Arti 
cle  of  the  Constitution  of  the  Pennsylvania  Diocese  declares 
that  "  every  clergyman  of  the  Church,  of  whatever  order,  being 
a  settled  minister  of  some  parish  in  this  State,  shall  be  entitled 
to  a  seat  and  vote  in  the  Convention"  provided  he  has  had  a 
canonical  residence  of  a  certain  time,  &c.  The  Tenth  Article 
prescribes  the  mode  of  altering  the  Constitution,  by  the  joint 
action  of  two  successive  Conventions,  and  thus  takes  away  the 
power  of  doing  it  by  a  simple  resolution. 

Ruffian  mobs  had  on  several  occasions,  within  the  past  few 
years,  assailed  the  unoffending  blacks  in  Philadelphia,  sacked 
their  dwellings,  and  torn  down  their  houses  of  worship,  and  all  on 
account  of  the  complexion  their  Maker  had  given  them.  And 
how  was  this  wicked,  cruel  prejudice  against  color,  rebuked  by 
the  Episcopal  Church  in  Pennsylvania  ?  Why,  the  Convention, 
at  the  instigation  of  the  bishop, 

"  Resolved,  That  the  following  clause  be  added  to  the  8th  Revised 
Regulation  adopted  in  1829,  and  hereafter  to  be  taken  as  part  thereof: 


REPROOF    OP    THE    AMERICAN    CHURCH.  447 

'No  Church  in  this  diocese,  in  like  peculiar  circumstances  with  the  Af 
rican  Church  of  St.  Thomas,  shall  be  entitled  to  send  a  clergyman  or 
deputies  to  the  Convention,  or  to  interfere  with  the  general  government 
of  the  Church.'  * 

Thus  were  colored  clergymen  and  colored  Christians  driven, 
in  contempt  and  utter  violation  of  canonical  law,  from  the  en 
closure  of  the  Church,  as  they  had  been,  by  abandoned  wretches, 
from  the  sanctuary  of  their  own  homes.  The  bishop,  clergy, 
and  lay  deputies  of  the  Pennsylvania  Church,  make  common 
cause  with  the  rioters  in  the  streets,  in  a  general  crusade  against 
negroes  and  mulattoes  !  This  act  of  the  Convention  brands  for 
all  future  time  every  minister  of  Christ,  and  every  member  of 
his  mystical  body,  who  may  trace  his  descent  from  the  land  of 
Cyprian  and  Tertullian,  as  belonging  to  a  distinct  and  degraded 
caste,  and  debars  them  from  all  participation  in  the  government 
of  the  Redeemer's  Church.  This  act  forcibly  thrusts  a  portion 
of  the  Church  into  schism,  and  repudiates  one  of  the  fundimental 
conditions  on  which  the  Diocese  of  Pennsylvania  consented,  in 
1784,  to  acknowledge  a  general  ecclesiastical  government  in  the 
United  States,  viz.,  "  That  to  make  canons  and  laws,  there  be 
no  other  authority  than  that  of  a  representative  body  of  the 
clergy  and  laity  conjointly."  The  great  truth,  "  HE  HATH  MADE 
us,  AND  NOT  WE  OURSELVES,"  is  set  at  naught  by  the  Pennsyl 
vania  Convention  ;  and  in  the  indulgence  of  an  "  unrighteous 
prejudice,"  or  in  a  cowardly  submission  to  it,  they  have  sacri 
ficed  both  the  independence  and  the  unity  of  the  Church,  the 
dignity  of  the  ministerial  office,  and  that  love  which  Christ  made 
the  badge  and  test  of  discipleship.  And  this  lawless  and  pro 
fane  excision  of  their  brethren,  these  men  attempted  to  veil 
under  the  strange  and  indefinite  phraseology  of  "  all  in  like 
peculiar  circumstances  with  the  African  Church  of  St.  Thomas  !  " 
If  anything  can  possibly  add  to  the  shame  of  this  transaction,  it 
is  that  the  vote  was  taken  without  discussion  ;  not  one  single 
member  of  that  large  body,  clergyman  or  layman,  having  the 
independence  to  rise  in  his  place  and  protest  against  an  act,  at 
variance  alike  with  the  principles  of  the  Church,  and  the  pre 
cepts  of  its  Divine  Head.  And  what  is  the  apology,  the  only 
apology  which  the  Churchmen  of  Pennsylvania  can  offer  for 


448  JAY'S  WORKS. 

this  wanton  insult  and  oppression  of  their  colored  brethren  ?  an 
apology  that  aggravates,  instead  of  excusing  their  conduct. 
Popular  prejudice  required  that  colored  clergymen  and  delegates 
should  be  excluded  from  the  Convention !  It  is  disheartening 
to  the  patriot,  to  see  our  public  men,  those  to  whom  high  and 
important  trusts  are  confided,  so  often  governing  themselves,  not 
by  the  immutable  principles  of  justice  and  rectitude,  but  by  the 
ever  varying  opinions  of  the  multitude.  But  oh  !  it  is  sickening  to 
the  soul,  to  witness  the  Church  of  Christ  sacrificing  to  popular 
clamor,  her  own  holy  and  glorious  attribute  of  being  a  light  and 
a  guide  to  a  benighted  and  a  sinful  world. 

Bishop  Onderdonk  of  New  York,  in  his  charge  of  1843,  to 
the  Convention,  remarked : 

"  Taking  the  Gospel  for  our  guide,  we  must  see  in  the  Church  and 
the  world,  essentially  antagonistic  bodies.  The  Church  was  formed  not 
to  cooperate  with  the  world,  but  to  oppose  it — to  attack  the  wicked  prin 
ciples  and  practices  to  which  it  is  in  bondage,  and  to  come  to  no  terms 
with  it  on  any  other  principles  than  its  entire  surrender  of  its  opposi 
tion  to  the  pure  and  holy  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  and  its  entire  submission 
to  the  rule  which  Christ,  through  his  Church,  would  establish  over  it 

for  good Let  us  ever,  by  the  grace  of  God,  be  careful  that 

in  our  intercourse  with  it,  we  adorn  the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour 
in  all  things;  and  then  go  forward  in  our  Master's  work,  indifferent 
save  for  its  own  sake,  whether  the  world  be  pleased  or  offended;  and,  in 
deed,  looking  for  the  ill  will  and  opposition  from  it,  which  that  Master 
and  his  divine  Word  have  prepared  us  to  expect." 

Glorious  truths  !  Godly  counsels  !  worthy  of  an  age  of  martyrs 
and  confessors.  Alas,  that  they  should  have  been  in  the  lips  of 
him  who  uttered  them,  Vox  et  preterea  nihil!  Let  the  diary  of 
the  young  candidate  for  orders,  given  in  the  "  History,"  tell  how 
this  bold-spoken  bishop  crouched  before  a  prejudice  which  his 
own  tongue  confessed  to  be  "  unrighteous ; "  and  sacrificed  duty 
and  independence,  lest  the  Seminary  should  lose  the  support  of 
"  the  South  !  " 

Rank  and  caste  are  essentially  different ;  and  while  the  former 
is  sanctioned  by  the  Bible,  which  requires  us  to  render  honor  to 
those  to  whom  honor  is  due,  the  latter  is  heathenish  in  its  origin 
and  character.  Rank  is  founded  on  condition,  and  is  usually  con 
nected  with  personal  distinctions  and  acquirements.  It  unavoid- 


REPROOF    OF   THE    AMERICAN    CHURCH.  449 

ably  springs  from  the  organization  of  society ;  and  while  it  may 
confer  privileges,  is  not  necessarily  inconsistent  with  the  claims 
of  justice  and  humanity.  Caste,  on  the  contrary,  regards  races, 
irrespective  of  the  individuals  composing  them.  In  Hindostan,  it 
both  elevates  and  depresses — with  us,  its  only  effects  are  degra 
dation,  cruelty,  and  wretchedness.  In  the  former  country,  the 
two  extremes  of  caste  are  the  Brahmins  and  Soodras,*  and  the 
gulf  between  them  is  wider  and  more  impassable  than  that  which 
in  our  own  separates  the  whites  and  the  blacks.  And  yet  the 
American  Church  may  learn  an  edifying  lesson  from  the  tempo 
rary  cessation  of  caste  in  the  presence  of  a  Hindoo  idol. 

"I  was  surprised,"  says  Dr.  Claudius  Buchanan,  in  the  journal  of  his 
tour  to  the  Temple  of  Juggernaut,  in  Orissa,  in  1806,  "to  see  the 
Brahmins,  with  their  heads  uncovered,  in  the  open  plain,  and  falling 
down  in  the  midst  of  the  Soodras,  before  the  horrid  shape,  and  mingling 
so  complacently  with  that '  polluted  caste ;"  but  this  proved  what  I  had 
before  heard,  that  so  great  a  god  is  this,  that  the  dignity  of  high  caste 
disappears  before  him.  This  great  king  recognizes  no  distinction  of 
rank  among  his  subjects.  All  men  are  equal  in  his  presence." 

We  have  long  gloried  in  the  conviction,  not  only  that  we  are 
a  true  Church,  but  that,  besides  ourselves,  there  is  none  other. 
Too  many  among  us  are  disposed  to  look  down  upon  Christians 
of  other  names,  with  much  the  same  feeling  with  which  the  phar- 
isee  beheld  the  publican  who  came  to  the  temple  to  pray.  It 
seems  to  be  not  unfrequently  forgotten,  that  the  glory  of  the 
Church  consists,  not  in  her  organization,  nor  in  her  rites  and 
ceremonies,  but  in  her  holiness,  which,  like  the  Shechinah  of 
the  ancient  temple,  proclaims  the  presence  of  the  Divine  Lord. 

The  Church  is,  unquestionably,  spiritually  diseased,  so  far  as 

*  "  Soodras  may  be  frequently  seen  carrying  water  in  a  cup,  and  entreating 
the  first  Brahmin  they  meet,  to  put  his  toe  into  it ;  after  which  they  drink 
the  water,  and  bow  or  prostrate  themselves  before  the  Brahmin,  who  bestows 
his  blessing  upon  them.  Others  preserve  some  of  this  holy  water  in  their 
houses.  Not  only  is  the  body  of  aSoodra  laid  prostrate  before  the  Brahmin, 
to  lick  the  dust  of  his  feet,  but  his  soul  is  also  sacrificed  to  his  honor.  If  a 
Spodra  dare  to  listen  to  the  salvation-giving  Vedu,  he  is  to  be  punished  for 
his  sacrilege.  If  a  Brahmin  happen  to  be  repeating  any  part  of  the  Vedu 
aloud,  a  Soodra,  if  near,  shuts  his  ears  and  runs  away.  If  a  Soodra  enter  the 
cook-room  of  a  Brahmin,  the  latter  throws  away  all  his  earthen  vessels  as 
defiled ;  nay,  the  very  touch  of  a  Soodra  makes  a  Brahmin  unclean,  and  com 
pels  him  to  bathe  in  order  to  wash  away  the  stain."  Ward's  View  of  the 
Hindoos,  pp.  79, 107. 


450  JAY'S  WORKS. 

she  ceases  to  be,  in  the  language  of  Bishop  Onderdonk,  "  antag 
onistic  to  the  world,  and  to  attack  its  wicked  principles  and  prac 
tices."  Tried  by  this  test,  what  is  the  comparative  health  and 
vitality  of  the  Pennsylvania  Episcopal  Convention,  and  the  Penn 
sylvania  Presbyterian  Synod  ?  The  latter  body,  like  the  first,  is 
composed  of  clerical  and  lay  deputies  ;  and  although  named  from 
the  State  in  which  most  of  its  members  reside,  embraces  various 
churches  in  Maryland.  On  the  30th  of  September,  1839,  the 
Synod  held  its  session  at  Elkton,  in  the  latter  State ;  and  of 
course  in  the  midst  of  slave-holders.  Two  colored  members 
took  their  seats,  and  assisted  in  organizing  the  body.  Their 
presence  excited  the  indignation  of  some  of  the  rabble  in  Elkton ; 
and  a  letter  was  addressed  to  a  member,  recommending  the  re 
tirement  of  the  two  delegates.  The  letter  was  shown  to  them, 
and  they  immediately  left  the  town.  The  Synod  was  uninformed 
of  what  had  occurred,  until  after  their  departure,  whereupon  the 
following  resolution  was  adopted : 

"  Whereas,  this  Synod  have  learned  that  two  of  their  number,  the 
Rev.  Jacob  Rhodes,  and  Mr.  Stephen  H.  Gloucester,  colored  brethren, 
have  withdrawn,  and  returned  to  their  homes,  in  consequence  of  rep 
resentations  that  their  presence  occasioned  some  unusual  excitement  in 
a  portion  of  the  community ;  therefore, 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Synod  regret  the  existence  of  a  prejudice  so 
unreasonable ;  and,  especially,  regret  that  their  brethren,  whose  right 
to  a  seat  in  this  body  stands  on  the  same  basis  as  that  of  any  of  its  mem 
bers,  should  have  felt  themselves  called  upon  to  relinquish  privileges 
to  which  they  were  justly  entitled,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  which  they 
should  have  been  sacredly  protected." 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Kip,  in  his  recent  work,*  describing  a  visit  he 
made  to  the  Propaganda  College  in  Rome,  says : 

"  The  students,  about  eighty  in  number,  were  ranged  on  the  two 
sides  of  the  chapel,  and  presented  a  strange  mixture  of  all  nations  and 
colors.  I  counted  among  them  five  Chinese,  and  two  Africans.  Yet 
here  they  all  sat  side  by  side,  without  any  distinction,  singing  together 
the  praises  of  their  common  Lord.  Surely  it  must  be  acknowledged 
that,  in  this  respect,  Rome  carries  out  her  own  catholic  principles,  and 
declares  not  only  in  words  but  by  her  actions,  that  "  God  hath  made  of 
one  blood  all  nations  of  men,  to  dwell  on  the  face  of  the  earth."  She 
recognizes  no  distinction  of  climate  or  country  in  the  house  of  God. 

*  Christmas  Holidays  in  Rome.    1846. 


REPROOF    OF    THE     AMERICAN    CHURCH.  451 

We  had  just  before,  as  we  entered  the  door  of  the  chapel,  witnessed  a 
similar  evidence  of  this  catholic  spirit.  An  old  man,  black  as  possible, 
in  an  ecclesiastical  dress,  was  just  getting  into  a  carriage.  He  was  as 
sisted  by  two  priests,  who,  with  many  bows  and  demonstrations  of  re 
spect,  were  taking  leave  of  him." 

We  trust  Mr.  Kip  remembered  with  pain  the  exclusion  of 
colored  candidates  for  orders  from  the  "  Propaganda "  of  his 
own  Church,  and  the  obloquy  heaped  on  his  colored  brethren  in 
the  ministry,  by  the  Pennsylvania  Convention,  and  that  he  will 
joyfully  aid  in  infusing  into  the  Episcopal  Church  "  the  catholic 
principles "  so  honorably  manifested  by  Papists  at  Rome  and 
Presbyterians  at  Elkton. 

In  the  course  of  these  remarks  we  have  expressed  ourselves 
strongly,  because  we  felt  deeply ;  and  on  reviewing  our  lan 
guage  we  see  no  cause  to  modify  it.  But  while  we  cannot  doubt 
that  the  acts  we  have  censured  were  morally  wrong,  we  are  too 
painfully  sensible  of  the  frailty  of  our  common  nature,  to  inti 
mate  that  a  Christian  profession,  to  be  sincere,  must  be  without 
offence.  Nor  are  we  forgetful  of  the  power  of  pecuniary  interest, 
parochial  dependence,  and  habitual  prejudice,  in  warping  the 
judgment,  beguiling  the  conscience,  and  hardening  the  heart,  in 
relation  to  slavery  and  caste.  Much,  also,  of  what  has  been 
wrong  in  our  ecclesiastical  proceedings,  has  unquestionably 
arisen,  not  from  reflection,  but  from  the  want  of  it.  Neverthe 
less,  the  responsibilities  of  the  Church  are  of  awful  magnitude, 
extending  to  the  life  that  now  is,  and  to  that  which  is  to  come  ; 
and  they  are  shared  by  all  her  members,  however  humble. 

The  Church  militant  will  find  her  strength  and  safety  only  in 
unceasing  conflict  with  the  world,  however  dire  may  be  the  strife. 
The  blood  of  martyrs  has  ever  proved  the  seed  of  the  Church. 
But  when  she  grows  faint-hearted,  and  distrusting  the  "  armor 
of  righteousness "  provided  by  the  Captain  of  her  salvation, 
seeks  for  weapons  of  earthly  mould,  and  calls  to  her  aid  the 
selfish  passions  and  sinful  prejudices  of  society,  she  is  treacher 
ous  to  her  Lord,  and  forms  a  truce  with  his  enemies  fatal  to 
herself.  Henceforth  her  energies,  no  longer  directed  against 
the  strongholds  of  sin,  are  wasted  in  "doubtful  disputations," 


452  JAY'S  WORKS. 

and  on  unprofitable  rites  and  ceremonies.  The  world  is  satisfied, 
and  applauds  her  discretion  and  moderation,  because,  although 
she  may  retain  the  form  of  Godliness,  she  has  parted  with  its 
power. 

Had  the  American  Church  from  the  first  fought  a  good  fight 
against  slavery  and  caste,  these  abominations,  which  now  so 
much  impair  her  usefulness,  and  so  widely  extend  the  dominion 
of  the  great  enemy  of  souls,  would  have  been  swept  from  our 
land  ;  a  new  proof  would  have  been  given  of  the  divine  character 
of  our  holy  religion,  and  the  Christian  priesthood  would  have 
acquired  new  claims  to  the  gratitude  and  reverence  of  mankind. 
Our  Church  has  hitherto  erred  in  no  small  measure  from  igno 
rance  and  inadvertence.  Such  a  plea  can  no  longer  avail  her. 
A  voice  from  abroad  —  a  voice  she  can  neither  stifle  nor  de 
ride  —  calls  her  to  repentance  and  reformation.  The  reproof  of 
Bishop  Wilberforce  must  and  will  be  heard.  The  sensibilities 
of  Christians  in  our  land  are  awakening  to  the  momentous  ques 
tions  to  which  we  have  referred.  The  various  denominations 
around  us  are  daily  breaking  the  ties  which  have  hitherto  bound 
them  to  the  cause  of  the  oppressor.  Numerous  Churchmen 
among  ourselves  are  complaining  of  the  league  which  their 
clergy  and  representative  bodies  have  formed  with  human  bond 
age  ;  and  the  Church  of  England  is  marking  and  lamenting  the 
delinquencies  of  her  daughter.  If  the  Church  values  the  appro 
bation  of  her  Divine  Master ;  if  she  appreciates  the  character 
and  objects  of  her  own  holy  mission ;  if  she  desires  to  avoid 
agitation  in  her  councils,  she  must  be  more  than  the  promulgator 
and  advocate  of  an  abstract  theology,  however  pure  and  truthful 
in  itself.  She  must  practically  exhibit  the  blessed  Gospel  as  at 
once  the  antagonist  and  corrective  of  every  form  of  wickedness 
that  mars  the  happiness  of  man  in  this  world,  as  well  as  the 
next ;  she  must,  in  short,  manifest  FAITH  WHICH  WORKETH  BY 

LOVE,  PURIFIETH  THE  HEART,  AND    OVERCOMETH  THE  WORLD. 


A  LETTER 

TO  THE  RIGHT  REV.  L.  SILLIMAN  IVES, 

BISHOP  OF  THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH  IN  THE  STATE  OF 
NORTH   CAROLINA. 


RIGHT  REVEREND  SIR  : 

History  tells  us  of  a  certain  bishop  who  was  taken  prisoner  in 
battle,  while  fighting  against  the  king  of  France.  The  Pope, 
indignant  that  a  prelate  of  the  church  should  be  held  as  a  cap 
tive,  demanded  his  instant  liberation.  To  this  mandate  the 
king  replied  by  sending  his  Holiness  the  bishop's  blood-stained 
armor,  with  the  words  of  Scripture,  "  This  have  we  found : 
know  now,  whether  it  be  thy  son's  coat  or  no." 

And  surely  the  ambassador  of  HIM  who  came  to  preach  deliv 
erance  to  the  captive,  and  liberty  to  them  that  are  bruised,  as 
effectually  disguises  and  denies  holy  office,  when  he  chants  the 
praises  of  slavery,  with  all  its  inseparable  and  unutterable  abomi 
nations,  as  when  he  arrays  himself  in  the  garment  of  the  warrior, 
and  participates  in  the  work  of  human  butchery.  Of  all  the 
bishops  of  the  church,  you  alone  aspire  to  the  championship  of 
human  bondage.  Your  brother  of  Texas  reposes  on  the  laurels 
he  has  won  in  the  service  of  the  slave-holders.  Others  of  your 
reverend  and  right  reverend  brethren  are  content  to  enjoy  the 
unrequited  toils  of  their  bondmen,  without  provoking  the  atten 
tion  of  the  public  to  the  discrepancy  between  their  religion  and 


454  JAY'S  WORKS, 

their  practice.  You  alone  throw  down  the  gauntlet  to  the  whole 
of  Christendom  beyond  the  slave  region.  It  was  not  enough 
that  you  had  already  endorsed  with  the  whole  weight  of  your 
Episcopal  influence  the  frantic  assertions,  that  "NO  MEN  NOB 

SET  OF  MEN  IN  OUR  1>AT,  UNLESS  THEY  CAN  PRODUCE  A 
NEW  REVELATION  FROM  HEAVEN,  ARE  ENTITLED  TO  PRO 
NOUNCE  SLAVERY  WRONG,"  and  that  "  SLAVERY,  AS  IT  EXISTS 
AT  THE  PRESENT  DAY,  IS  AGREEABLE  TO  THE  ORDER  OF 

DIVINE  PROVIDENCE  ; "  you  must  introduce  the  subject  into  the 
council  of  your  church,  and  entertain  your  convention  with  a 
picture  of  the  blessedness  of  North  Carolina  slaves,  and  with 
sneers  at  the  wailing  of  your  fellow  Christians  over  their  "  im 
aginary  "  suffering.  Should  we  seek  for  the  cause  of  your  peculiar 
ultraisnr  in  behalf  of  human  chattelism,  we  should  probably  find 
it  in  the  tendency  of  human  nature,  under  a  change  of  position, 
to  vibrate  from  one  extreme  to  the  other ;  and  which  is  exempli 
fied  in  the  proverbial  cruelty  and  arrogance  of  the  slave,  when 
elevated  to  the  post  of  DRIVER.  Had  you,  when  preparing  for 
the  ministry  among  your  native  hills  of  New  York,  been  told 
that  the  day  would  come  when  you  would  claim  to  hold  your 
fellow-men  as  bondmen  by  the  grace  of  God,  and  would  scoff  at 
the  sufferings  of  southern  slaves,  the  answer  of  Hazael  to  the 
prophet  would  have  trembled  on  your  lips. 

Your  late  address  to  the  convention  of  your  diocese  contained 
the  following  extraordinary  passages : 

"  From  this  place  I  went,  by  the  request  of  my  friend,  Josiah  Collinsr 
Esq.,  directly  to  the  estates  on  Lake  Scuppernong,  which  had  been 
without  stated  ministerial  services  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year. 
Here,  and  in  the  neighboring  parish  at  Pettigrew's  chapel,  I  passed  the 
remainder  part  of  the  season  of  Lent,  holding  daily  services,  delivering 
lectures,  and  commencing  a  new  course  of  oral  catechetical  instruc 
tions  to  the  servants.  This  course  is  to  embrace  the  prominent  events 
and  truths  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  as  connected  with  man's 
fall  and  redemption,  and  is  designed  to  follow  the  oral  catechism  I 
have  already  published.  The  services  here  were  of  the  most  gratifying 
character,  fully  justifying  all  that  has  been  said  and  anticipated  of  the 
system  of  religious  training  heretofore  pursued  on  these  plantations. 
When  I  saw  master  and  servants  standing  side  by  side  in  the  holy  ser 
vices  of  Passion  week  —  when  I  saw  all  secular  labor  on  these  planta 
tions  suspended  an  Good  Friday,  and  the  cleanly  clad  multitude  throng 
ing  the  house  of  prayer,  to  pay  their  homage  to  a  crucified  Saviour  — 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP   IVES,  455 

and  when  I  saw  on  the  blessed  Easter  morn,  the  master  with  his 
goodly  number  of  servants  kneeling  with  reverent  hearts  and  devout 
thanksgivings  to  take  the  bread  of  life  at  the  same  altar  —  I  could  not 
but  indulge  the  hope  that  ere  long  my  spirit  may  be  refreshed  by  such 
scenes  in  every  part  of  my  diocese ;  while  I  could  not  help  believing 
that,  had  some  of  our  brethren  of  other  lands  been  present,  they  would 
have  been  induced  to  change  the  note  of  their  wailing  over  imaginary 
suffering,  into  the  heartfelt  exclamation,  '  Happy  are  the  people  that 
are  in  such  a  case  ^  yea,  blessed  are  the  people  who  have  the  Lord  for 
their  God: 

"  Often,  afsuch  times,  have  I  wished  for  the  presence  of  my  friend, 
the  good  Bishop  of  Oxford,  as  I  have  felt  assured  that,  could  he  but 
onoe  witness  what  it  is  my  happiness  to  witness,  though  in  a  too  imperfect 
state,  his  manly  heart  would  prompt  him  to  ask  instant  pardon  of  the 
American  church,  for  having  spoken  so  harshly  upon  a  subject  which 
he  so  imperfectly  understood  ;  and  that  he  would  perceive  that  his  Chris 
tian  sympathy  might  find  a  much  more  natural  vent  in  efforts  to  remove 
the  cruel  oppressions  of  the  factory  system  in  his  own  country,  and 
his  Christian  indignation  a  much  more  legitimate  object  of  rebuke 
in  the  English  churchmen  who  have  helped  to  rivet  that  system  upon 
their  land." 

If  ever  TRUTH  is  peculiarly  obligatory,  it  is  when  a  bishop, 
acting  in  his  high  and  holy  office,  addresses  a  council  of  the 
church  of  God.  We  are  here  informed  that  our  brethren  of 
other  lands  have  raised  a  "  note  of  wailing  over  IMAGINARY 
suffering ; "  and  the  context  forbids  us  to  understand  the  expres 
sion  in  any  other  sense  than  a  solemn  official  declaration  that 
southern  slavery  is  unattended  with  real  actual  suffering !  The 
assurance  is  also  avowed,  that  had  the  Bishop  of  Oxford  wit 
nessed  the  scenes  at  Scuppernong,  he  would  have  been  prompted 
to  ask  instant  pardon  of  the  American  church,  for  having  spoken 
so  harshly  upon  a  subject  which  he  so  imperfectly  understood. 
Such  an  assurance  is  no  less  wonderful  than  unwarranted.  The 
subject  on  which  the  bishop  is  accused  of  having  spoken  harshly 
and  without  understanding  it,  is  American  slavery,  and  the  sup 
port  afforded  it  by  the  American  church. 

Your  address,  sir,  is  the  first  response  made  to  the  Bishop  of 
Oxford's  reproof  of  the  American  church.  So  long  as  it  was 
hoped  the  reproof  would  be  suppressed  in  this  country,  a  most 
profound  silence  was  observed  respecting  it.  Scarcely  an  Epis 
copalian  in  the  country  seemed  to  know  that  the  history  of  his 
church  had  been  written  by  an  eminent  English  divine.  But 


456  JAY'S  WORKS. 

no  sooner  is  an  extract  from  his  history  published,  bearing  upon 
the  horrors  of  southern  slavery,  and  the  delinquencies  of  our 
bishops  and  clergy  respecting  it,  than  you  think  proper  to  rep 
resent  him  as  imperfectly  acquainted  with  the  subject,  and  pro 
fess  to  believe  that,  if  better  informed,  he  would  ask  instant 
pardon  of  the  church  for  what  he  had  written.*  It  is  to  be 
regretted,  sir,  that  you  found  it  inexpedient  to  specify  the  alleged 
suffering  which  you  pronounce  imaginary,  or  to  point  out  a  single 
mistake  into  which  your  good  brother  of  Oxford  has  fallen,  and 
which  would  tend  in  any  degree  to  verify  your  charge  against 
him  of  imperfectly  understanding  his  subject.  But  sir,  there  are 
writers  against  whom  you,  a  northern  man,  will  not  think  it  dec 
orous  to  bring  a  similar  charge.  The  following  witnesses,  you 
will  perceive,  differ  from  you  as  to  the  blessedness  of  southern 
slavery,  and  dare  to  call  it  wrong,  without  waiting  for  a  new 
revelation  from  Heaven. 

WAHLNGTON  :  —  "  Your  late  purchase  of  an  estate  in  the  colony  of 
Cayenne,  with  a  view  of  emancipating  the  slaves  on  it,  is  a  generous 
and  noble  proof  of  your  humanity.  "Would  to  God  a  like  spirit  might 
diffuse  itself  generally  into  the  minds  of  the  people  of  this  country." 
Letter  to  Lafayette,  10th  May,  1786. 

JEFFERSON  :  — "  Can  the  liberties  of  a  nation  be  thought  secure, 
when  we  have  removed  the  only  firm  basis  —  a  conviction  in  the  minds 
of  the  people  that  these  liberties  are  the  gift  of  God — that  they  are  not 
to  be  violated  but  with  his  •wrath  ?  Indeed  I  tremble  for  my  country 
when  I  reflect  that  God  is  just ;  that  his  justice  cannot  sleep  for  ever ; 
that,  considering  numbers,  nature,  and  natural  means  only,  a  revolution 
of  the  wheel  of  fortune,  an  exchange  of  situation  is  among  possible 
events;  that  it  may  become  possible  by  supernatural  interference. 
The  Almighty  has  no  attribute  which  can  take  side  with  us  in  such  a 
contest."  Notes  on  Virginia. 

*  "  No  doubt,  the  whole  church  of  England  might  with  equal  propriety  be 
called  to  ask  pardon  of  her  American  daughter,  as  it  is  to  be  hoped  every  one 
of  her  bishops,  priests  and  deacons,  most  cordially  concurs  in  the  propriety 
and  justice  of  the  Bishop  of  Oxford's  reproof.  The  Bishop  of  Norwich,  in  a 
letter  of  19th  October,  1840,  to  an  American  gentleman  who  had  furnished 
him  with  certain  papers,  including  portions  of  Freeman's  Sermon,  and  Bishop 
Ives's  endorsement  of  it,  remarks  :  "  I  have  always  considered  it  as  an 
anomaly,  that  any  State  professing  Christianity  could  for  a  moment  tolerate 
a  tyranny  so  utterly  at  variance  with  every  feeling  of  justice  and  humanity, 
but  I  never  could  have  believed  that  any  individuals  existed,  calling  them 
selves  ministers  of  the  gospel,  whose  minds  were  so  darkened  by  prejudice  and 
self-interest  as  to  avow  an  approval  of  slavery  and  its  evil  consequences, 
had  I  not  found  them  so  unequivocally  confirmed  in  the  documents  above 
mentioned." 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP   IVES.  457 

MADISON  :  —  "  Many  circumstances  at  the  present  moment  seem  to 
concur  in  brightening  the  prospects  of  the  Society,  and  cherishing  the 
hope  that  the  time  will  come  when  the  dreadful  calamity  which  has  so 
long  afflicted  our  country,  and  filled  so  many  with  despair,  will  be 
gradually  removed,"  Letter  to  American  Colonization  Society,  29th 
December,  1831. 

MONROE  :  —  "  We  have  found  that  this  evil  (slavery J  has  preyed 
upon  the  very  vitals  of  the  community,  and  has  been  prejudicial  to  all 
the  States  in  which  it  has  existed."  Speech  in  Virginia  Convention. 

WILLIAM  PINKNEY  :  —  "It  is  really  matter  of  astonishment  to  me, 
that  the  people  of  Maryland  do  not  blush  at  the  very  name  of  freedom. 
Not  content  with  exposing  to  the  world,  for  near  a  century,  a  speaking 
picture  of  abominable  oppression,  they  are  still  ingenious  to  prevent 
the  hand  of  generosity  from  robbing  it  of  half  its  horrors,"  Speech  on 
Slavery  in  Maryland  House  of  Delegates,  1789. 

PATRICK  HENRY  :  —  "  It  is  a  debt  we  owe  the  purity  of  our  reli 
gion,  to  show  that  it  is  at  variance  with  that  law  which  warrants  sla 
very."  Letter  to  A.  Benezet. 

MANUMISSION  SOCIETY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA  :  —  "  In  the  east 
ern  parts  of  the  State,  the  slaves  considerably  outnumber  the  free 
population.  Their  situation  there  is  wretched  beyond^description.  Im 
poverished  by  the  mismanagement  which  we  have  already  attempted 
to  describe,  the  master,  unable  to  supply  his  own  grandeur  and  main 
tain  his  slaves,  puts  the  unfortunate  wretches  upon  short  allowance, 
scarcely  sufficient  for  their  sustenance,  so  that  a  great  part  go  half 
naked  and  half  starved  much  of  the  time.  ,  .  .  Generally,  throughout 
the  State,  the  African  is  an  abused,  a  monstrously  outraged  creature/ 
Report,  1826. 

JOHN  RANDOLPH  :  —  "  Sir,  I  envy  neither  the  head  nor  the  heart 
of  that  man,/rom  the  North,  who  rises  here  to  defend  slavery  on  prin 
ciple."  Speech  in  Congress,  1829. 

MR.  MOORE  :  —  "  Slavery  as  it  exists  in  Virginia,  may  be  regarded 
as  the  heaviest  calamity  which  has  ever  fallen  to  this  portion  of  the 
human  race.  One  of  the  evils  which  arises  from  it,  is  the  irresistible 
tendency  which  it  has  to  undermine  and  destroy  everything  like  virtue 
and  morality  in  the  community."  Speech  in  Virginia  Legislature,  1832. 

THOMAS  M.  RANDOLPH  :  —  "It  is  a  practice,  and  an  increasing 
practice,  in  parts  of  Virginia,  TO  REAR  SLAVES  FOR  MARKET.  How 
can  an  honorable  mind,  a  patriot  and  a  lover  of  his  country,  bear  to 
see  this  Ancient  Dominion  converted  into  one  vast  menagerie,  where 
men  are  reared  for  market  like  oxen  for  the.  shamUes  ?  "  Speech  in  Vir 
ginia  Legislature,  1832. 

REV.  R.  J.  BRECKENRIDGE,  of  Baltimore  :  —  "  What  is  slavery  as 
it  exists  among  us  ?  We  reply,  it  is  that  condition,  enforced  by  the 
laws  of  one  half  of  the  States  of  this  confederacy,  in  which  one  portion 
of  the  community,  called  masters,  is  allowed  such  power  over  another 
portion,  called  slaves,  as  — 

"1.  To  deprive  them  of  the  entire  earnings  of  their  own  labor, 


458  JAY'S  WORKS. 

except  only  so  much  as  is  necessary  to  continue  labor  itself,  by  continu 
ing  healthy  existence  —  thus  committing  clear  robbery. 

"  2.  To  reduce  them  to  the  necessity  of  universal  concubinage,  by- 
denying  to  them  the  civil  rights  of  marriage  —  thus  breaking  up  the 
dearest  relations  of  life,  and  encouraging  universal  prostitution. 

"  3.  To  deprive  them  of  the  means  and  opportunities  of  moral  and 
intellectual  culture ;  in  many  States  making  it  a  high  penal  offence  to 
teach  them  to  read  —  thus  perpetuating  whatever  evil  there  is  that  pro 
ceeds  from  ignorance. 

"  4.  To  setup  between  parents  and  their  children  an  authority  higher 
than  the  impulse  of  nature  and  the  laws  of  God,  which  breaks  up  the 
authority  of  the  father  over  his  own  offspring,  and  at  pleasure  separates 
the  mother  at  a  returnless  distance  from  her  child  —  thus  abrogating 
the  clear  laws  of  nature,  thus  outraging  all  decency  and  justice,  and 
degrading  and  oppressing  thousands  upon  thousands  of  beings  created 
like  themselves  in  the  image  of  the  Most  High  God.  Tins  is  SLA 
VERY,  as  it  is  daily  exhibited  in  every  slave  State."  African  Reposi 
tory,  1834. 

SYNOD  OF  KENTUCKY:  —  "Brutal  stripes,  and  all  the  various  kinds 
of  personal  indignities  are  not  the  only  species  of  cruelty  which  slavery 
licenses.  The  law  does  not  recognize  the  family  relations  of  a  slave, 
and  extends  to  him  no  protection  in  the  enjoyment  of  domestic  endear 
ments.  The  members  of  a  slave  family  may  be  forcibly  separated,  so 
that  they  shall  never  more  meet  till  the  final  judgment ;  and  cupidity 
often  induces  the  masters  to  practise  what  the  law  allows.  Brothers 
and  sisters,  parents  and  children,  husbands  and  wives  are  torn  asunder, 
and  permitted  to  see  each  other  no  more.  These  acts  are  daily  occur 
ring  in  the  midst  of  us.  The  shrieks  and  the  agony  often  witnessed 
on  such  occasions  proclaim  with  a  trumpet  tongue,  the  INIQUITY  AND 
CRUELTY  OF  OUR  SYSTEM."  Address,  1835. 

HENRY  CLAY :  —  "I  consider  slavery  as  a  curse  —  a  curse  to  the 
master  —  a  wrong,  a  grievous  wrong  to  the  slave.  In  the  abstract,  it  is 
all  wrong,  and  no  possible  contingency  can  make  it  right."  Coloniza 
tion  Speech,  1836. 

T.  MARSHALL,  of  Fauquier  county,  Virginia :  —  "  Slavery  is  ruinous 
to  the  whites.  The  master  has  no  capital  but  what  is  vested  in  HUMAN 
FLESH.  The  father,  instead  of  being  richer  for  his  sons,  is  at  a  loss 
to  provide  for  them.  There  is  no  diversity  of  occupations,  no  incentive 
to  enterprise.  Labor  of  every  species  is  disreputable,  because  performed 
mostly  by  slaves.  Our  towns  are  stationary,  our  villages  almost  every 
where  declining,  and  the  general  aspect  of  the  country  marks  the 
curse  of  a  wasteful,  idle,  reckless  rjopulation,  who  have  no  interest  in 
the  soil,  and  care  not  how  much  it  is  impoverished."  Speech  in  Vir 
ginia  Legislature,  1845. 

And  now,  sir,  what  will  you  do  with  this  host  of  witnesses, 
which  might  be  indefinitely  enlarged  ?  Will  you,  a  northern 
man,  charge  these  witnesses  with  an  imperfect  knowledge  of  sla 
very  ?  By  no  means  ;  but  you  may  say  of  them,  quite  as  truly 
as  of  the  Bishop  of  Oxford,  that,  had  they  only  been  at  Scup- 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP   IVES.  459 

pemong  last  Good  Friday  and  Easter  Sunday,  they  would  have 
"  been  prompted  to  ask  instant  pardon  "  of  the  American  church, 
for  having  spoken  so  harshly  of  an  institution  which  she  enjoys, 
defends,  and  blesses. 

Warburton,  in  his  Divine  Legation  (vol.  II,  p.  92,)  informs 
us  that  the  ancient  sages  held  it  lawful  and  expedient  to  teach 
one  doctrine  to  the  people  at  large,  and  an  opposite  one  to  a 
select  number.  Hence  the  double  doctrine  of  these  philosophers 
—  the  one  external,  intended  for  the  public,  and  known  as  the 
exoteric ;  the  other  internal,  common  to  friends  and  disciples, 
and  denominated  the  esoteric.  The  slave-holders  of  the  present 
day  have  their  double  doctrine  also ;  and  to  distinguish  between 
the  exoteric  and  the  esoteric,  it  is  only  necessary  to  ascertain 
whether  the  language  used  is  intended  for  effect  on  the  north  or 
the  south  side  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  For  the  purpose  of 
illustrating  this  double  doctrine,  which  in  the  sequel  will  be 
found  very  useful  in  explaining  the  spiritual  phenomena  wit 
nessed  at  Scuppernong,  I  will  call  your  attention  to  the  exoteric 
teachings  of  those  distinguished  sages,  Governors  Hayne  and 
Hammond,  both  within  a  few  years  chief  magistrates  of  South 
Carolina.  The  former,  in  his  message  to  the  Legislature,  in 
1833,  thus  speaks  to  the  South  Carolina  lawgivers,  but  only  for 
the  purpose  of  being  overheard  by  the  people  of  the  North : 

"  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  even  during  the  revolutionary  war, 
when  the  State  was  overrun  by  a  barbarous  enemy,  marching  openly 
under  the  banner  of  emancipation,  our  domestics  could  not  be  seduced 
from  their  masters,  but  proved  a  source  of  STRENGTH,  and  not  of  weak 
ness,  to  the  country." 

Governor  Hayne,  no  doubt,  adopted  the  maxim  of  the  Grecian 
philosophers,  that  truth  and  utility  do  not  always  coincide  ;  for 
he  was,  of  course,  too  well  informed  in  the  history  of  his  native 
State  not  to  have  been  conscious  that  the  "  remarkable  fact " 
thus  officially  announced  was  an  impudent  invention  of  his  own. 
Let  us  listen  to  the  testimony  borne  by  history  to  the  fidelity  of 
South  Carolina  domestics,  and  the  strength  they  yielded  to  the 
country  during  the  revolutionary  wTar-: 

"March  29,  1799. — The  committee  appointed  to  take  into  considera 
tion  the  circumstances  of  the  Southern  States,  and  the  ways  and  means 


460  JAY'S  WORKS. 

for  their  safety  and  defence,  report :  That  the  State  of  SOUTH  CARO 
LINA  (as  represented  by  the  delegates  of  said  State,  and  by  Mr.  Huger, 
who  has  come  hither,  at  the  request  of  the  Governor  of  said  State,  on 
purpose  to  explain  the  peculiar  circumstances  thereof)  is  UNABLE  to 
make  any  effectual  efforts  with  the  militia,  by  reason  of  the  great  pro 
portion  of  citizens  necessary  to  remain  at  home  to  prevent  insurrection 
among  the  negroes,  and  prevent  their  desertion  to  the  enemy"  Secret 
Journal  of  Congress,  Vol.  II,  p.  105. 

"  The  negroes  seduced  and  taken  from  the  inhabitants  of  SOUTH 
CAROLINA  in  the  course  of  the  war,  remained  subject  to  the  disposal 
of  the  enemy.  They  were  successively  shipped  to  the  West  Indies ; 
and  it  is  asserted,  on  the  authority  of  the  best  informed  citizens  of 
South  Carolina,  that  more  than  TWENTY  THOUSAND  slaves  were  lost 
to  the  State  in  consequence  of  the  war."  Co1..  H.  Lee's  Memoirs  of 
the  Revolutionary  War  in  the  Southern  Department,  Vol.  II,  p.  456. 

Dr.  Ramsay  was  a  native  of  South  Carolina,  and  in  1809, 
published  his  History  of  the  State,  in  the  city  of  Charleston. 
Is  it  to  be  believed  that  the  governor  had  never  heard  of  the 
following  facts  recorded  by  the  historian  ?  Speaking  of  the 
campaign  of  1779,  Ramsay  tells  us  : 

"  The  forces  under  the  command  of  General  Provost  marched 
through  the  richest  settlements  of  the  State,  where  are  the  fewest  white 
inhabitants  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  slaves.  The  hapless  Afri 
cans,  allured  with  the  hopes  of  freedom,  forsook  their  owners,  and  re 
paired  in  great  numbers  to  the  royal  army.  They  endeavored  to 
recommend  themselves  to  their  new  masters  by  discovering  where  their 
owners  had  concealed  their  property,  and  were  assisting  in  carrying  it 
off."  Vol.  I,  p.  312. 

Describing  the  invasion  the  next  year,  he  says : 

"  The  slaves  a  second  time  flocked  to  the  British  army."  Vol.  I,  p. 
336. 

Again:  "Immediately  after  the  surrender  (of  Charleston,)  five 
hundred  negroes  were  ordered  to  be  put  on  board  the  ships  for  pioneers 
to  the  royal  forces  in  New  York."  Vol.  I,  p.  35. 

Finally :  "  It  has  been  computed  by  good  judges,  that  between  the 
years  1775  and  1783  the  State  of  South  Carolina  lost  TWENTY- 
FIVE  THOUSAND  negroes ! ! "  Vol.  I,  p.  475. 

The  census  of  1790  found  the  whole  number  of  slaves,  men, 
women,  and  children,  in  South  Carolina,  to  be  only  107,000. 
Now  if  a  few  years  before,  of  those  physically  capable  of  seek 
ing  refuge  in  the  British  camp  and  fleet,  no  less  than  twenty-five 
thousand  availed  themselves  of  the  presence  of  the  enemy  to 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP   IVES.  461 

escape  from  their  masters,  we  may  form  some  idea  of  the  truth 
of  Governor  Hayne's  eulogium  on  the  fidelity  of  South  Carolina 
slaves. 

The  object  of  the  Governor's  mendacious  FACT  was  to  lead 
the  people  of  the  North  to  believe  that  their  sympathy  for  the 
slaves  was  misplaced,  that  their  suffering  was  "imaginary;" 
since,  if  they  retained  their  allegiance  to  their  masters,  in  the 
presence  of  a  British  emancipating  army,  they  must  certainly 
be  very  well  contented  with  their  condition. 

In  1822,  there  was  in  Charleston  a  rumor  of  an  intended 
servile  insurrection;  and  this  very  gentleman,  then  Colonel 
Hayne,  patrolled  the  streets  one  whole  night,  at  the  head  of  five 
companies  of  soldiers,  to  prevent  the  faithful  domestics  from 
cutting  their  masters'  throats.  No  less  than  thirty -five  "  do 
mestics  "  were  soon  after  tried,  convicted,  and  hung,  for  their 
intended  insurrection ;  and  in  this  judicial  butchery,  this  same 
Colonel  Hayne  played  his  part  as  one  of  the  judges ! 

The  Governor  did  not  see  fit  to  refer  to  the  fidelity  of  south 
ern  slaves  during  the  more  recent  war  of  1812.  Let  us  supply 
his  omission.  A  memorial  presented  to  Congress  by  certain 
Virginia  and  Maryland  slave-holders,  and  to  be  found  in  the 
documents  of  the  2cl  Sess.,  20th  Cong.,  sets  forth,  that  "  in  July 
and  August,  1814,  the  enemy  made  several  landings  on  the 
northern  neck  of  Virginia.  All  the  militia  in  this  peninsula 
were  called  into  service,  and  the  property  (slaves)  was  pretty 
well  protected.  On  a  sudden,  an  order  came,  that  all  the  troops 
should  be  marched  to  the  defence  of  Washington  ;  and  this  neck 
of  eighteen  miles  wide  was  emptied  of  all  its  efficient  force  for 
nearly  six  weeks.  During  the  absence  of  the  forces  there  was 
nothing  to  restrain  our  slaves,  and  they  FLOCKED  IN  HUNDREDS 

TO  THE  ENEMY." 

Governor  Hammond,  another  South  Carolina  sage,  addressing 
the  North  from  the  floor  of  Congress,  1st  of  February,  1836, 
taught  the  following  exoteric  doctrine  : 

"  Sir,  our  slaves  are  a  peaceful,  kind-hearted,  and  affectionate  race, 
satisfied  with  their  lot,  happy  in  their  comforts,  and  devoted  to  their  mas 
ters."  It  will  not  be  an  easy  thing  to  seduce  them  from  their  fidelity." 


462  JAY'S  WORKS. 

And  now,  sir,  for  a  little  esoteric  doctrine  relative  to  the  "  de 
votion  "  of  slaves  to  their  masters.  Soon  after  the  hanging  of 
domestics  by  dozens  in  Charleston,  a  pamphlet  appeared  there, 
entitled  "Reflections  occasioned  by  the  Late  Disturbances  in 
Charleston,"  attributed  to  Gen.  T.  Pinkney.  It  was  an  essay 
on  the  dangers  to  be  apprehended  from  the  slave  population, 
and  the  means  of  averting  them.  Of  the  "  house  servants  "  it 
is  said : 

"  They  are  the  most  dangerous  ;  their  intimate  acquaintance  with  all 
the  circumstances  relating  to  the  interior  of  the  dwellings,  the  confi 
dence  reposed  in  them,  and  the  information  they  unavoidably  obtain 
from  hearing  the  conversation  and  observing  the  habitual  transactions 
of  their  owners,  afford  them  the  most  ample  means  for  TREACHEROUS 
BLOODSHED  AND  DEVASTATION.  The  success,  therefore,  of  servile 
conspiracies  mainly  depends  on  this  class  for  taking  off  by  midnight 
murder  their  unsuspecting  owners ;  and  the  late  trials,  by  exhibiting 
so  large  a  portion  of  this  description  among  the  ringleaders  of  the 
conspiracy,  afford  a  melancholy  proof  of  their  promptitude  to  become 
actors  in  such  scenes,"  p.  14. 

Another  pamphlet  came  out  the  same  year  at  Charleston, 
said  to  be  from  the  pen  of  Edwin  C.  Holland,  Esq.,  and  called 
"A  Rufutation  of  the  Calumnies  circulated  against  the  Southern 
and  Western  States."  It  concluded  with  the  following  esoteric 
advice : 

"  Let  it  never  be  forgotten,  that  our  negroes  are  truly  the  Jacobins 
of  the  country  ;  that  they  are  the  anarchists  and  the  domestic  enemy  ; 
the  common  enemy  of  civilized  society  ;  and  the  barbarians  who  would, 
if  they  could,  become  the  DESTROYERS  OF  OUR  RACE." 

"  We  of  the  South,"  says  the  Maysville  (Tennessee)  Intelligencer, 
"  are  emphatically  surrounded  by  a  dangerous  class  of  beings  —  de 
graded,  stupid  savages  —  who,  if  they  could  but  once  entertain  the  idea 
that  immediate  and  unconditional  death  would  not  be  their  portion, 
would  reenact  the  St.  Domingo  tragedy." 

Says  the  Southern  Religious  Telegraph  : 

"  Hatred  to  the  whites,  with  the  exception  in  some  cases  of  attach 
ment  to  the  person  and  family  of  the  master,  is  nearly  universal  among 
the  black  population.  We  have,  then,  a  foe  cherished  in  our  own 
bosoms  —  a  foe  willing  to  draw  our  LIFE  BLOOD  whenever  the  oppor 
tunity  is  offered." 

The  slave-holders,  when  thus  cautioning  each  other  against 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP    IVES.  463 

the  intense  hatred  felt  for  them  by  the  slaves,  seem  never  to  ask 
themselves,  "  Is  there  not  a  cause  ?  " 

The  double  doctrine  is  not  confined  to  the  laity ;  even  the 
CLERGY  occasionally  condescend  to  use  it.  One  of  the  most 
astonishing  specimens  of  the  clerical  exoteric  to  be  met  with  in 
the  writings  of  southern  divines,  is  furnished  by  the  Rev.  J.  C. 
THORNTON,  President  of  the  Centenary  College,  Clinton,  Mis 
sissippi.  This  gentleman,  in  a  volume  entitled  an  "  Inquiry 
into  the  History  of  Slavery,  1841,"  but  in  reality,  a  philippic 
against  abolitionists,  scoffing  at  the  alleged  ignorance  of  the 
slaves,  thus  exclaims : 

"  They  are  so  '  ignorant '  that  they  are  chiefly  all  in  the  South  mem 
bers  of  three  or  four  denominations,  Protestant  Episcopalians,  Presby 
terians,  Baptists,  Methodists ;  among  all  of  whom  are  colored  ministers 
of  exalted  standing,  who  would  honor  any  pulpit  in  America.  When 
those  who  are  not  church  members  are  added  to  the  above,  it  will 
make  at  least  TWO  MILLIONS  of  slaves  in  regular  attendance  on  divine 
worship,"  pp.  108  — 110. 

To  these  specimens  of  the  reverend  gentleman's  veracity,  we 
add  one  of  his  refinement.  Addressing,  in  his  book,  by  name, 
two  anti-slavery  writers  at  the  North,  he  tells  them  — 

"  Bring  forward  your  son,  out  with  your  daughter,  and  either  shall 
have  an  Angola  negro  before  night,"  p.  140. 

As  the  whole  number  of  slaves,  including  children,  at  the  last 
census,  was  rather  less  than  three  millions,  and  at  the  least  TWO 
millions  of  these  are  in  regular  attendance  on  divine  worship,  it 
must  be  confessed  that  the  slaves  are  the  greatest  church-going 
people  in  the  world.  "  Happy  are  the  people  that  are  in  such 
a  case."  But  before  indulging  in  our  pious  gratulations,  let  us 
attend  to  the  esoteric  teaching  on  the  subject  of  slave  religion. 
In  a  sermon  preached  before  an  association  of  planters  in  Geor 
gia,  by  the  Rev.  C.  C.  Jones,  and  published  at  Savannah,  1831, 
we  have  the  following  confessions  : 

"  The  description  which  the  Apostle  Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Ro 
mans,  gives  of  the  heathen  world,  will  apply,  with  very  little  abatement, 
to  our  negroes.  They  lie,  blaspheme,  are  slothful,  envious,  malicious, 
inventors  of  evil  things,  deceivers,  covenant  breakers,  implacable,  un 
merciful.  Numbers  of  the  negroes  do  not  go  to  church,  and  cannot 


464  JAY'S  WORKS. 

tell  who  Jesus  Christ  is,  nor  have  they  ever  heard  so  much  as  the  ten 

commandments  read  and  explained Generally  speaking, 

they  appear  to  be  without  hope,  and  without  God  in  the  world  —  A 

NATION  OF  HEATHEN  IN  OUR  VERY  MIDST." 

The  report  of  the  Synod  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  made 
5th  of  December,  1833,  and  published  at  Charleston,  makes  the 
following  revelations  : 

"  Who  would  credit  it,  that  in  these  years  of  revival  and  benevolent 
effort,  in  this  Christian  republic,  there  are  OVER  TWO  MILLIONS  of 
human  beings  in  the  condition  of  heathen,  and  in  some  respects  in  a 
worse  condition  ?  From  long-continued  and  close  observation,  we 
believe  that  their  moral  and  religious  condition  is  such  that  they  may 
justly  be  considered  the  HEATHEN  of  this  Christian  country,  and  will 
bear  a  comparison  with  heathen  in  any  part  of  the  world.  ...  It 
is  universally  the  fact  throughout  the  slave-holding  States,  that  either 
custom  or  law  prohibits  them  the  acquisition  of  letters,  and  conse 
quently  they  can  have  no  access  to  the  Scriptures In  the 

vast  field,  extending  from  an  entire  State  beyond  the  Potomac  to  the 
Sabine  river,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Ohio,  there  are,  to  the  best 
of  our  knowledge,  not  twelve  men  exclusively  devoted  to  the  religious 
instruction  of  the  negroes.  As  to  ministers  of  their  own  color,  they 
are  destitute,  infinitely,  both  in  point  of  numbers  and  qualifications,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  such  a  ministry  is  looked  upon  with  dis 
trust,  and  discountenanced.  But  do  not  the  negroes  have  access  to 

the  Gospel  through  the  stated  ministry  of  the  whites  ?     No 

We  venture  the  assertion,  that  if  we  take  the  whole  number  of  minis 
ters  in  the  slave-holding  States,  but  a  very  small  portion  pay  any  atten 
tion  to  them The  negroes  have  no  regular  and  efficient 

ministry ;  as  a  matter  of  course,  NO  CHURCHES  ;  neither  is  there  suffi 
cient  room  in  the  white  churches  for  their  accommodation.  We  know 
of  but^/zve  churches  in  the  slave-holding  States  built  expressly  for  their 
use.  .  .  .  We  may  now  inquire  if  they  enjoy  the  privileges  of  the 
Gospel  in  private,  in  their  own  houses,  or  on  their  own  plantations. 
Again  we  return  a  negative  answer.  They  have  NO  BIBLES  to  read 
at  their  own  fireside,  they  have  no  family  altars ;  and  when  in  affliction 
and  sickness,  or  death,  they  have  no  minister  to  address  to  them  the 
consolations  of  the  Gospel,  nor  to  bury  them  with  solemn  and  appro 
priate  services." 

Certainly  the  reverend  President  of  "  Centenary  College, 
Clinton,  Mississippi,"  and  the  Synod  of  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia,  differ  somewhat  as  to  the  religious  character  of  two 
millions  of  slaves.  According  to  the  one,  they  are  regular  at 
tendants  on  divine  worship ;  according  to  the  other,  they  are 
"  in  the  condition  of  HEATHEN."  According  to  the  one,  among 
the  Episcopalian,  Presbyterian,  Baptist,  and  Methodist  slaves 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP   IVES.  465 

there  are  "colored  ministers  of  exalted  standing,  who  would 
honor  any  pulpit  in  America."  According  to  the  other  —  "  As 
to  ministers  of  their  own  color,  they  are  destitute  infinitely,  both 
in  point  of  number  and  qualifications." 

A  writer  in  the  Charleston  Courier  tells  us,  "  There  are  up 
wards  of  20,000  colored  persons  in  Charleston  and  on  the  Neck, 
and  there  are  but  inadequate  accommodations  and  opportunities 
for  their  attendance  on  the  preaching  of  the  Word  of  God,  by 
admission  to  galleries  in  some  of  our  churches  ;  there  being  many 
which  do  not  even  vochsafe  them  that  privilege."  A  late  writer 
in  the  Charleston  Mercury,  opposing  a  proposition  to  form  colored 
congregations,  remarks  : 

"  It  has  been  the  policy  of  this  State,  not  to  admit  the  teaching  to 
the  slaves,  either  of  reading  or  writing ;  we  all  know  why  this  is  so. 
No  matter  from  what  combination  of  causes,  the  result  has  been  pro 
duced,  in  this  part  of  the  country,  '  for  weal  or  for  wo,'  our  lives  and 
fortunes  are  indissolubly  connected  with  the  preservation  of  that  insti- 
tion.  It  needed  no  great  scope  of  argument  to  satisfy  those  who  framed 
our  laws,  that  the  expansion  of  intellect,  the  hundred  influences  which 
education  generates,  would  be  very  inconsistent  with  habits  of  obedi 
ence,  which  was  the  corner-stone  of  the  institution." 

Let  us  now  apply  this  double  doctrine  to  the  case  of  the  slave 
Christians  of  Scuppernong,  and  see  whether  we  cannot  find 
some  esoteric  revelations  which  might  cause  the  Bishop  of  Ox 
ford  to  pause  a  little  before  he  asks  pardon  for  his  reproof  of 
the  American  church. 

It  seems  that,  during  Lent,  you  visited  certain  plantations 
"which  had  been  without  stated  ministerial  services  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  year."  In  the  midst  of  this  destitution  of 
the  means  of  grace,  you  appeared  on  the  ground,  and  "  com 
menced,"  —  for  it  appears  you  had  no  time  to  finish,  —  "a  new 
course  of  oral  catechetical  instruction  to  the  servants."  How 
far  the  servants  were  permitted  to  listen  to  your  daily  lectures 
and  services,  and  whether  they  enjoyed  the  oral  instruction  on 
other  days  than  the  Sabbath,  is  uncertain,  since  no  mention  is 
made  of  the  suspension  of  labor  on  the  plantations,  except  on 
Good  Friday.  However  this  may  be,  certain  results  are  re 
corded.  You  saw  masters  and  servants  standing  side  by  side  in 

40 


4G6  JAY'S  WORKS. 

the  holy  services  of  Passion  week.  Probably  the  church  in 
which  you  officiated  had  no  galleries,  and  hence  when  the  ser 
vices  required  the  congregation  to  stand,  you  saw  the  masters 
and  slaves  standing  on  the  same  floor.  Had  you  seen  them  sil 
ting  together  in  the  same  pews,  we  could  better  have  understood 
their  position,  and  should  have  shared  your  surprise.  On  Good 
Friday,  all  secular  labor  was  suspended.  This,  of  course,  was 
not  the  effect  of  the  oral  instruction  to  the  servants,  but  an  act 
of  civility  on  the  part  of  the  masters  to  the  bishop,  who  had 
made  the  visit  by  particular  request.  On  this  day,  you  saw  the 
"  cleanly  clad  multitude  thronging  the  house  of  prayer,  to  pay 
homage  to  a  crucified  Saviour."  It  was  far  easier  to  see  a  large 
gang  of  slaves  standing  in  the  church,  than  to  see  the  motive 
which  brought  them  there.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that,  during 
the  bishop's  visit,  the  slaves  were  told  to  throw  down  their  hoes, 
and  put  on  clean  chothes,  merely  to  spend  Good  Friday  in 
dancing,  or  roaming  over  the  plantations.  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  piety  of  the  "  multitude,"  they  were  most  unquestion 
ably  ordered  to  go  to  church,  and  a  sound  flogging  would  have 
been  the  fate  of  every  truant.  On  the  blessed  Easter  morn  you 
behold  "  the  master  with  his  goodly  number  of  servants  kneeling 
with  reverent  hearts  and  devout  thanksgivings,  to  take  the  bread 
of  life  at  the  same  altar."  As  no  Protestant  Episcopal  church 
has  as  yet  more  than  one  altar  or  communion  table,  the  commu 
nicants,  as  a  matter  of  course,  knelt  at  the  same.  As  the  ser 
vice  was  performed  by  you,  it  was  of  course  performed  with 
rubrical  correctness  ;  and,  not  being  interrupted  with  narratives 
of  personal  experiences  and  feelings,  it  is  not  very  obvious  how 
you  made  the  discovery  that  the  goodly  number  of  servants  knelt 
with  reverent  hearts  and  devout  thanksgivings. 

You  flatter  yourself,  sir,  that  if  these  sights  had  been  witnessed 
by  some  of  "  our  brethren  from  other  lands  "  (probably  North 
ern  and  English  abolitionists,)  they  would  have  changed  their 
note  of  wailing  over  imaginary  suffering  into  the  jubilant  chant, 
"  Happy  are  the  people  that  are  in  such  a  case ;  yea,  blessed 
are  the  people  who  have  the  Lord  for  their  God ! ! "  Be  assured, 
sir,  that  unless  they  very  imperfectly  understood  the  subject,  no 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP   IVES.  467 

such  exclamations  would  be  prompted  by  their  hearts,  nor  escape 
from  their  lips.  They  would  not  regard  as  happy  the  masters 
who  compelled  a  goodly  number  of  their  fellow  Christians  to 
toil  for  them  without  wages ;  and  the  more  easily  to  keep  them  in 
subjection,  prevented  the  expansion  of  their  intellect,  and  denied 
them  the  common  rights  of  humanity,  and  particularly  that  of 
searching  the  Scriptures.  They  would  not  regard  the  multitude 
of  slaves  happy,  because  excused  from  labor  on  Good  Friday, 
while  toiling  under  the  lash  every  other  week  day  in  the  year ; 
nor,  finally,  would  they  pronounce  masters  and  slaves  happy, 
merely  because  they  were  seen  to  receive  the  communion  on 
Easter  Sunday. 

Most  true  it  is,  that  he  who  has  the  Lord  for  his  God  is 
blessed,  whether  he  bleeds  under  the  lash  of  the  slave-driver,  or 
expires  a  martyr  at  the  stake ;  and  equally  true  is  it,  that  his 
blessedness  affords  no  justification  to  his  brother  for  treating  him 
as  a  beast  of  burden,  or  offering  his  life  a  sacrifice  to  religious 
intolerance.  No  Christian  will  deny  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  penetrate  the  gloomy  prison  house  of  southern  bondage, 
and  to  enlighten,  sanctify,  and  save  its  miserable  inmates.  But 
the  blessings  of  grace,  as  of  providence,  are  ordinarily  bestowed 
in  return  for  the  use  of  appointed  means ;  and  where  those 
means  are  withheld,  or  partially  applied,  or  grossly  perverted, 
other  evidence  may  justly  be  required,  that  the  slave  has  made 
the  Lord  his  God,  than  the  simple  fact  that  he  is  seen  to  receive 
the  communion  in  his  master's  church,  and  in  his  company.  It 
is  somewhat  questionable  whether  your  spirit  would  have  been 
equally  refreshed  at  the  sight  of  a  multitude  of  Presbyterian, 
Baptist,  or  Methodist  slaves,  receiving  the  communion  from  the 
hands  of  a  minister  destitute  of  Episcopal  ordination ;  or 
whether  you  would  have  been  equally  assured  of  their  blessed 
ness.  Yet  you  well  know,  sir,  that  in  the  choice  of  their  church 
and  creed  the  slaves  are  for  the  most  part  passive ;  and  that,  had 
the  Scuppernong  communicants  been  sent  to  auction  on  Easter 
Monday,  they  would  each  thenceforth  have  worshipped  in  the 
place  and  manner  directed  by  "  the  highest  bidder." 

The  Southern  churches  number  their  slave  communicants  by 


468  JAY'S  WOKKS. 

thousands ;  but  profession  is  not  principle ;  and  in  all  ages  and 
countries,  there  has  ever  been  a  ready  conformity  to  the  religion 
of  the  ruling  despot.  Where  the  slave  makes  no  religious 
profession,  the  cause  is  for  the  most  part  to  be  found  in  the  in- 
dhTerence  of  the  master. 

The  esoteric  teaching  on  this  subject  is  not  calculated  to  inspire 
very  strong  confidence  in  slave  piety.  In  an  account  of  the 
"  Intended  Insurrection,"  published  by  the  authorities  of  Charles 
ton,  1822,  it  is  stated,  that  of  those  executed  several  had  been 
"  class-leaders."  "  Jack  Green  was  a  preacher ;  Billy  Palmer 
exceedingly  pious,  and  a  communicant  of  the  church  of  his 
master ;  Jack  Purcell,  no  less  devout."  The  ensuing  year,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Dalcho,  assistant  minister  of  St.  Michael's  church, 
Charleston,  published  a  pamphlet  in  vindication  of  slavery,  but 
had  the  decency  to  omit  his  name  on  the  title-page.*  Alluding 
to  the  late  conspirators,  he  says  : 

"  I  write,  with  feelings  of  the  deepest  regret,  that  some  of  the  coi> 
spirators  were  preachers,  class-leaders,  and  communicants ;  thus  veri 
fying  the  truth  of  a  remark  which  teachers  have  too  often  occasion  to 
make,  that  THERE  IT  LITTLE  CONFIDENCE  TO  BE  PLACED  IN  THE 
RELIGIOUS  PROFESSIONS  OF  NEGROES.  I  speak  generally.  Much 
animal  excitement  may  be,  and  oftentimes  is,  produced,  where  but  little 
real  devotion  is  felt  in  the  heart.  I  sympathize  most  sincerely  with  the 
very  respectable  and  pious  clergyman,  whose  heart  must  still  bleed  at 
the  recollection  that  his  confidential  class-leader,  but  a  week  or  two 
before  his  just  conviction,  had  received  -the  communion  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  from  his  hand.  This  wretch  had  been  brought  up  in  his  pas 
tor's  family,  and  was  treated  with  the  same  Christian  attention  as  was 
shown  to  their  children."  f 

Says  the  venerable  and  Rev.  Dr.  Nelson,  a  native  of  Tennes 
see,  and  formerly  President  of  Marion  College,  Missouri : 

u  The  concentrated  recollection  of  thirty  years  furnishes  me  with 
three  instances  only,  where  I  could  say  I  have  reason,  from  the  known 
walk  of  that  slave,  to  believe  him  or  her  a  sincere  Christian." 

The   Rev.  C.  C.  Jones,  probably  better  acquainted  with  the 

*  Practical  Considerations,  founded  on  the  Scriptures,  relative  to  the  Slave 
Population  of  South  Carolina.     By  a  South.  Carolinian, 
f  But  the  wretch  was  the  slave  of  his  pastor. 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP    IVES.  469 

religious  character  of  the  slaves  than  any  other  southern  minis 
ter,  says,  in  his  sermon  already  quoted : 

"  Of  THE  PROFESSORS  OF  RELIGION  among  them,  there  are  many 
of  questionable  piety,  who  occasion  the  different  churches  great  trouble 
in  discipline,  for  they  are  extremely  ignorant,  and  frequently  are  guilty 
of  the  grossest  vices.'1 

After  such  facts  and  confessions,  you  cannot,  sir,  be  surprised, 
should  your  brethren  from  other  lands  be  a  little  sceptical  about 
the  "  reverent  hearts  and  devout  thanksgivings  "  of  the  goodly 
number  of  the  Scuppernong  negroes.  But,  alas  !  sir,  there  are 
indeed  far  weightier  reasons  than  these  facts  and  confessions,  to 
justify  such  scepticism. 

The  very  peculiar  character  of  that  Christianity  which  is 
offered  to  the  slaves  is  well  calculated  to  insure  its  rejection  by 
them.  LOVE  is  the  great  motive,  argument,  and  command  of 
the  Gospel.  God  is  love.  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he 
gave  his  only  begotten  Son.  We  love  God,  because  he  first 
loved  us.  Love  one  another,  so  shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are 
my  disciples.  One  is  your  Father,  which  is  in  heaven  ;  all  ye 
are  brethren.  When  we  are  cruelly  and  unjustly  treated,  we 
know  that  we  suffer  in  violation  of  the  precepts  of  our  religion, 
and  we  are  taught  to  pray  for  the  offender,  that  his  sin  may  be 
forgiven.  Far  different  is  the  religion  offered  to  the  slave.  He 
is  instructed  that  the  common  Father  of  all  has  authorized  a 
portion  of  his  children  to  convert  the  others  into  articles  of  mer 
chandise.  The  favored  children,  moreover,  are  permitted  to 
withhold  from  their  brethren  the  revelation  made  by  their  Heav 
enly  Father,  and  which  he  has  declared  is  able  to  make  them 
wise  unto  salvation.  The  slave  also  learns,  by  experience,  that 
to  him  is  denied  the  marriage  and  the  parental  relations — blessed 
boons,  expressly  conferred  by  God  upon  others.  While  this 
religion  calls  on  some  to  be  diligent  in  business,  that  they  may 
provide  for  their  families,  he  is  informed  that  this  same  religion 
requires  from  him  unceasing  and  unrepining  toil,  for  the  sole 
benefit  of  his  happier  brethren.  A  future  life  is  indeed  revealed 
to  him,  and  he  is  promised  happiness  in  another  world,  on 
certain  conditions ;  among  which  are,  always,  obedience  to  his 
40* 


470  JAY'S  WOKKS. 

master,  and  refusal  to  escape  from  bondage.  The  slave  is  taught 
that  those  privations  and  sufferings  which  he  endures,  and  which 
outrage  his  moral  sense,  are  in  perfect  accordance  with  the  pre 
cepts  of  his  religion ;  and  that  to  pray  for  the  forgiveness  of  his 
oppressor  would  be  but  to  insult  that  Divine  Majesty  which 
clothed  the  oppressor  with  power,  and  authorized  him  to  use  it 
in  crushing  his  weaker  brother. 

Such  is  the  Christianity  presented  to  the  slave  —  a  religion 
which  his  own  consciousness  must  tell  him  is  partial,  severe,  and 
unjust,  nullifying  in  the  case  of  the  Hack  man  the  holy  and 
benevolent  precepts  it  gives  to  his  ivhite  brother,  and  sanctifying 
a  system  of  cruelty  and  oppression,  which  every  faculty  of  his 
soul  tells  him  is  wrong. 

And  by  whom  is  this  species  of  Christianity  received,  beyond 
the  slave-region  ?  Almost  the  whole  of  Christendom  rejects  it 
as  spurious.  The  wise  and  good  of  all  countries  abhor  it.  The 
bishops  of  the  Church  of  England  denounce  it.  Not  a  bishop 
at  home,  in  a  free  State,  dare  give  it  his  sanction.  And  yet  it 
is  supposed  that  the  poor  slave,  who  of  all  others  has  the  most 
reason  to  reject  a  religion  which  sinks  him  below  humanity,  will 
cordially  embrace  it. 

Not  only  is  this  religion  necessarily  repugnant  to  the  natural 
moral  sense  of  the  slaves,  but  the  very  persons  who  preach  it 
must  be  objects  of  their  distrust  and  aversion.  No  minister 
addresses  the  slaves  on  a  plantation,  but  by  permission  of  the 
master  ;  nor  is  any  slave  ordinarily  admitted  to  Christian  ordi 
nances;  but  by  the  same  permission,  expressed  or  implied.  Hence 
the  minister  virtually  addresses  the  slave  as  the  agent  of  his 
master,  and,  instead  of  letting  the  slave  perceive  that  he  sym 
pathizes  in  his  sufferings,  and  laments  and  condemns  his  oppres 
sion,  he  labors  to  impress  him  with  the  belief  that  God  Almighty 
sanctions  the  servitude  beneath  which  he  groans,  and  requires 
from  him  a  ready  submission  to  it.  Is  it  in  human  nature  that 
such  shepherds  should  be  loved  by  the  flock  ? 

No  clergyman  at  the  South  has  probably  labored  more  zeal 
ously  in  behalf  of  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  slaves  than  the 
Rev.  C.  C.  Jones ;  but,  unhappily,  he  has  labored  as  the  agent 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP    IVES.  471 

of  the  masters,  and  the  supporter  of  human  bondage';  and  what 
has  been  his  success  ?  Listen  to  his  story,  as  related  in  the 
Tenth  Report  of  the  Association  for  the  Religious  Instruction  of 
the  Negroes  in  Liberty  county,  Georgia : 

"  I  was  preaching,"  says  he,  "  to  a  large  congregation,  on  the  Epistle 
to  Philemon ;  and  when  I  insisted  on  fidelity  and  obedience  as  Christian 
virtues  in  servants,  and  upon  the  authority  of  Paul,  CONDEMNED  THE 
PRACTICE  OF  RUNNING  AWAY,  one-half  of  my  audience  deliberately 
rose  up  and  walked  off  with  themselves;  and  those  who  remained  looked 
anything  but  satisfied  with  the  preacher  or  his  doctrine.  After  dismis 
sion,  there  was  no  small  stir  among  them ;  some  solemnly  declared  that 
there  was  no  such  Epistle  in  the  Bible ;  others,  that  it  was  not  the 
Gospel ;  others,  that  /  preached  to  please  the  masters ;  others,  that  they 
did  not  care  if  they  never  heard  me  preach  again,"  p.  24. 

Had  Mr.  Jones  been  untrammelled  by  the  theory  of  slavery 
and  the  interests  of  the  masters,  he  would  have  preached  a  very 
different  sermon,  and  experienced  very  different  treatment. 
After  reading  the  Epistle,  he  would  have  told  his  audience  that 
the  text  left  it  wholly  uncertain  whether  Onesimus  was  a  slave  or 
a  hired  servant ;  that,  in  either  case,  the  apostle  had  no  power  to 
compel  him  to  return  to  his  master ;  and  that,  of  course,  his 
return  was  wholly  voluntary ;  that,  so  far  from  being  in  dis 
grace,  or  liable  to  arrest  on  his  journey,  he  was  sent  by  the 
apostle  as  "  a  faithful  and  beloved  brother,"  a  messenger  to  a 
Christian  church  (Col.  iv,  9)  ;  that,  if  he  was  in  fact  a  slave, 
then  the  apostle  demanded  his  immediate  emancipation,  by  re 
quiring  his  master  to  receive  him,  "  not  now  as  a  slave,  but 
above  a  slave,  a  brother  beloved."  The  preacher  might  then 
have  pressed  upon  his  hearers,  from  the  injunctions  of  the 
apostle,  the  duties  of  forgiveness  and  kindness.  Such  a  sermon 
would  have  recommended  Christianity  to  the  slaves,  and  exposed 
the  preacher  to  be  lynched  by  the  masters. 

In  1792-'93,  a  number  of  American  citizens  were  held  as 
slaves  in  Algiers,  and  by  as  valid  and  sacred  a  title  as  that  by 
which  any  slave  is  held  in  North  Carolina.  Indeed,  these  Amer 
ican  slaves  were  held  by  precisely  the  same  title,  the  fortune  of 
war,  as  were  a  great  portion  of  the  Roman  slaves,  whose  bond 
age  you  and  Bishop  Freeman  insist  was  approved  by  Christ  and 


472  JAY'S  WORKS. 

his  apostles.  These  slaves,  one  hundred  and  five  in  number,  in 
a  petition  to  Congress,  declared :  "  We  are  employed  daily  at 
the  most  laborious  work,  without  respect  of  persons,  and  shut  up 
at  night  in  two  slave-prisons"  What  would  have  been  the 
feelings  of  these  slaves  towards  an  English  clergyman,  in  the 
pay  of  the  Dey,  who,  with  his  permission,  should  have  preached 
to  them  from  the  Epistle  to  Philemon,  urging  upon  them  fidelity 
and  obedience  to  their  Algerine  masters  as  Christian  duties,  and 
assuring  them,  on  the  authority  of  St.  Paul,  of  the  great  sin 
they  would  commit  in  attempting  to  escape  from  their  "  slave- 
prisons  ?  " 

Mr.  Jones  has  prepared  a  catechism  for  the  slaves.  In  this 
manual  of  religious  instruction,  they  are  asked,  "  Is  it  right  for 
the  servant  to  run  away  ?  or  is  it  right  to  harbor  a  runaway  ?  " 
To  this  question,  the  slaves  are  required  to  respond  an  emphatic 
«  No." 

Is  there  a  slave,  is  there  a  white  man,  who  believes  that  the 
Rev.  C.  C.  Jones,  if,  through  some  misfortune  or  violence,  he 
should  be  reduced  to  bondage  in  Russia  or  Turkey,  would  not, 
in  spite  of  his  catechism,  embrace  the  first  favorable  opportunity 
"  to  run  away  ?  "  or,  if  he  could  not  run  away  himself,  that  he 
would  be  restrained  by  scruples  of  conscience  from  harboring  a 
fellow-countryman,  who  had  partially  succeeded  in  making  his 
escape  ?  Yet  the  wretched  slaves  are  required  by  their  reli 
gious  teachers  to  believe  that  God  requires  them  to  remain  vol 
untarily  in  a  state  of  ignorance  and  degradation,  and  even  to 
refuse  .their  aid  to  their  wives,  children  and  friends,  who  are 
endeavoring  to  recover  their  liberty  !  Such  a  doctrine  is  alone 
sufficient  to  give  the  negroes  a  disgust  to  the  religion  of  which 
they  are  assured  it  forms  a  part.  And  now  let  me  ask,  Who 
believes  or  acknowledges  this  doctrine,  beyond  the  slave-region  ? 
Is  there  a  minister  of  Christ,  except  among  the  slave-holders, 
who  would  so  far  expose  his  sacred  character  to  public  abhor 
rence,  as  to  betray  a  fugitive  slave  to  the  kidnappers  ?  Who 
thinks  it  a  sin  at  the  North  or  in  Europe  to  harbor  a  runaway  ? 
Who,  at  the  North,  except  here  and  there  a  needy  attorney, 
policeman,  or  a  merchant  ready  to  barter  his  character  for 


LETTER    TO   BISHOP   IVES.  473 

southern  custom,  is  vile  enough  to  carry  into  practice  the  doc 
trine  of  Mr.  Jones's  negro  catechism,  and  bewray  him  that  wan- 
dereth,  or  refuse  to  hide  the  outcasts,  or  to  be  a  covert  to  them 
from  the  face  of  the  spoiler  ? 

Not  only  is  Christianity  presented  to  the  slaves  by  its  minis 
ters  in  an  odious  and  disgusting  form,  but  these  very  ministers 
are  perceived  by  the  slaves  to  be  the  agents  of  the  masters,  and 
to  preach  to  "please  them"  and  are  themselves  almost  univer 
sally  owners  of  human  beings,  buying  and  selling  men,  women, 
and  children.  Is  it  possible  that  such  men  can  be  honored,  and 
trusted,  and  beloved,  by  the  slaves,  as  their  spiritual  teachers, 
friends,  and  guides  ? 

But,  alas !  Christianity  is  rendered  still  more  repulsive  to  the 
slave  by  the  fact  that  not  only  do  its  teachers  make  merchandise 
of  their  brethren  in  Christ,  but  that  organized  churches  are  not 
unfrequently 

"  Christian  brokers  in  the  trade  of  blood," 

appropriating  the  profits  of  the  traffic  to  the  support  of  the  priest 
and  the  temple ! 

A  fugitive  slave  told  his  friends  at  the  North  that  he  had 
ceased  receiving  the  Lord's  Supper  in  the  church  to  which  he 
had  been  attached,  because  the  CHURCH  had  sold  his  brother  to 
pay  for  their  communion  plate ;  and  "  I  could  not  bear,"  said  he, 
"  to  go  forward  and  receive  the  communion  from  vessels  which 
were  the  purchase  of  my  brother's  blood." 

We  have  no  proof  of  the  truth  of  this  anecdote,  but  we  have 
most  abundant  evidence  of  its  credibility.  Says  the  Kev.  J. 
Cable,  in  a  printed  letter  of  the  20th  March,  1846 : 

"I  have  lived  eight  years  in  a  slave  State  (Virginia),  and  received 
theological  education  at  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  near  Hamp- 
den  Sydney  College.  Those  who  know  anything  about  slavery,  know 
the  worst  kind  is  jobbing  slavery — that  is,  hiring  out  slaves  from  year  to 
year,  while  the  master  is  not  present  to  protect  them.  It  is  the  interest 
of  the  one  who  hires  them  to  get  the  worth  of  his  money  out  of  them, 
and  the  loss  is  the  master's,  if  they  die.  What  shocked  me  more  than 
anything  else,  was  the  CHURCH  engaging  in  this  jobbing  of  slaves.  The 
college  church  which  I  attended,  held  slaves  enough  to  pay  the  pastor, 
Mr.  Stanton,  one  thousand  dollars  a  year  ;  of  which  the  church  mem 
bers,  as  I  understood,  did  not  pay  a  cent.  The  slaves,  who  had  been 


474  JAY'S  WORKS. 

left  to  the  church  by  some  pious  mother  in  Israel,  had  increased  so  as  to 
be  a  large  and  increasing  fund.  These  were  hired  out  on  Christmas 
day  of  each  year — the  day  on  which  they  celebrate  the  birth  of  our 
Saviour — to  the  highest  bidder.  These  worked  hard  the  whole  year 
to  pay  the  pastor  Si, 000,  and  it  was  left  to  the  caprice  of  the  employers 
whether  they  ever  heard  one  sermon.  Since  the  abolitionists  have 
made  so  much  noise  about  the  connection  of  the  church  with  slavery, 
the  Rev.  Elisha  Balenter  informed  me  the  church  has  sold  this  prop 
erty,  and  put  the  money  into  other  stock.  There  were  four  churches 
near  the  college  that  supported  the  pastor,  in  whole  or  in  part,  in  the 
same  way,  viz.:  Cumberland  church,  John  Kirk,  pastor;  Briney 
church,  Win.  Plumrner,  pastor  (since  Dr.  P.,  of  Richmond)  ;  Buffalo 
church,  Mr.  Cochran,  pastor ;  Pisgah  church,  near  the  Peaks  of  Otter, 
J.  Mitchell,  pastor." 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Paxton,  a  Virginian,  and  once  a  slave-holder, 
states,  in  his  "  Letters  on  Slavery,"  that  tlie  church  in  Virginia, 
of  which  he  was  pastor,  owned  SEVENTY  SLAVES,  and  that  his 
salary  was  chiefly  derived  from  the  hire  of  their  labor. 

In  1832,  Mrs.  Ann  Pray,  of  Georgia,  left  a  legacy  of  certain 
slaves  to  the  American  Missionary  Board  of  Commissioners  — 
a  legacy  very  properly  declined  by  the  Board. 

"A  prime  gang  of  ten  negroes,  accustomed  to  the  culture  of 
cotton  and  provisions,  belonging  to  the  Independent  Church,  in 
Christ  Church  parish,"  was  advertised  for  sale  in  the  Charleston 
Courier  of  12th  February,  1835. 

In  the  Savannah  Republican,  23d  March,  1845,  C.  O'Neal, 
sheriff,  advertised  eight  slaves  for  sale  for  cash,  to  satisfy  a 
mortgage  in  favor  of  "  The  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Theologi 
cal  Seminary  of  the  Synod  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia" 

So  it  seems  the  Seminary  loans  its  money  on  the  security  of 
a  certain  amount  of  human  flesh,  and  this  under  the  direction  of 
the  very  Synod  whose  report  "  on  the  religious  instruction  of  the 
colored  population  "  we  have  already  quoted.  Deeply  are  these 
pious  Christians  exercised  in  their  minds  about  the  heathenism 
of  their  brethren  whom  they  are  selling  for  cash,  to  educate 
young  gentlemen  for  the  ministry ! 

The  "  Spirit  of  Missions"  some  time  since  informed  its  readers, 
that  "  the  Bishop  of  Georgia,  in  his  Montpelier  Institution,  is 
testing  the  sufficiency  of  SLAVE-LABOR  to  support  it."  It  is  to 
be  hoped  Bishop  Elliott  will  before  long  favor  the  public  with 
the  result  of  his  interesting  and  very  Christian  experiment. 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP    IVES.  475 

In  the  southern  church,  moreover,  the  desire  for  the  salvation 
of  the  negroes  is  in  entire  subserviency  to  the  supposed  interests 
of  the  masters.  The  New  Orleans  Picayune  of  16th  August, 
1841,  has  the  following: 

"  Chauncey  B.  Black  was  brought  before  Recorder  Baldwin,  charged 
with  tampering  with  slaves.  It  was  proved  that  he  was  seen  con 
versing  with  a  number  of  them  in  the  street ;  that  he  asked  them  if 
they  could  read  and  write,  and  if  they  would  like  a  Bible.  This  was 
the  amount  of  the  testimony  against  him.  In  palliation  of  his  conduct, 
it  was  shown  that  he  was  a  regularly  appointed  agent  of  the  Bible  So 
ciety  in  New  Orleans,  to  distribute  the  Bible  to  such  as  would  accept 
of  it.  The  Society,  however,  disclaimed  having  the  most  distant  inten 
tion  of  giving  the  Scriptures  to  slaves ;  and  it  was  said  Black  had  ex 
ceeded  his  commission  in  offering  it.  But  as  it  appeared  to  be  a  mis 
understanding  on  his  part,  and  not  intentional  interference  with  the 
peculiar  institution,  he  was  discharged  with  a  caution  not  to  repeat  his 
offence" 

Now  hear  the  New  Orleans  Presbytery,  in  their  Report  of 
1846: 

"There  are  within  the  bounds  of  the  presbytery  at  least  100,000 
colored  persons,  most  of  whom  are  slaves.  It  is  a  lamentable  fact,  that 
by  far  the  greater  part  are  famishing  and  perishing  for  the  bread  of  life" 

With  what  ineffable  scorn  must  the  slaves  regard  such  lamen 
tations  over  their  famine  for  the  bread  of  life,  from  the  lips  of 
men  who  have  not  the  most  distant  intention  of  giving  the  Scrip 
tures  to  slaves ! 

The  Southern  Religious  Telegraph  had  opened  its  columns  to 
a  series  of  papers  in  behalf  of  Christianizing  the  slaves.  Some 
of  the  Virginians  became  alarmed,  and  forthwith  the  obsequious 
editor  announces : 

"At  the  suggestion  of  some  of  our  fellow-citizens,  who  regard  the 
discussion  of  the  religious  instruction  of  slaves  inexpedient  at  this  time, 
we  cheerfully  comply  with  their  wishes,  and  will  discontinue  for  the 
present  the  publication  of  articles  on  the  subject." 

Says  the  Georgia  Conference  Missionary  Society,  in  its  Re 
port  for  1838: 

"  Our  missions  among  the  whites  have  shared  in  this  season  of  re 
freshing  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord.  The  missions  to  the  slaves 
have  not  been  distinguished  by  so  great  a  multiplication  of  church 


476  JAY'S  WORKS. 

members,  chiefly  because  the  mode  of  operation  is  essentially  different. 
It  is  deemed  imprudent  to  foster  among  the  colored  people  those  great 
excitements  which  minister  so  powerfully  to  the  building  up  of  our  so 
cieties  among  the  whites." 

Here  we  have  an  avowal,  that,  from  prudential  reasons — that 
is,  from  regard  to  the  security  of  slave  property — the  slaves 
have  been  deprived  by  these  Methodist  missionaries  of  certain 
auxiliaries  supposed  to  be  highly  conducive  to  salvation. 

In  1835,  the  slave-holders  of  Charleston,  having  sacked  the 
Post  Office,  and  riotously  destroyed  some  anti-slavery  papers 
found  in  it,  called  a  public  meeting,  for  the  avowed  purpose  of 
controlling  the  freedom  of  the  mail.  The  Charleston  Courier, 
giving  the  particulars  of  the  meeting,  announced  that 

"  The  CLERGY  of  all  denominations  attended  in  a  body,  lending  their 
sanction  to  the  proceedings,  and  adding  by  their  presence  to  the  im 
pressive  character  of  the  scene." 

The  sacrifice  of  decency  in  attending  this  lawless  meeting, 
was  not  the  only  one  which  the  Charleston  clergy  offered  on  the 
altar  of  slavery.  The  slave-holders  resolved : 

"That  the  thanks  of  this  meeting  are  due  to  the  reverend  gentlemen 
of  the  clergy  in  this  city  who  have  so  promptly  and  so  effectually  re 
sponded  to  the  public  sentiment,  by  suspending  their  schools,  in  which 
the/ree  colored  population  were  taught;  and  that  this  meeting  deem  it 
a  patriotic  action,  worthy  of  all  praise,  and  proper  to  be  imitated  by 
the  teachers  of  similar  schools  throughout  the  State." 

It  is  quite  in  character,  that  the  Charleston  slave-holders 
should  deem  it  a  patriotic  act  in  the  ministers  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  to  drive  Uack  children  from  their  Sunday  schools ;  but 
what  judgment  will  be  formed  of  these  pusillanimous  clergymen 
by  HIM  who  has  commanded  his  servants  not  to  fear  what  man 
can  do  unto  them  ?  Most  truly  says  the  Bishop  of  Oxford : 

"  It  is  a  time  for  martyrdom,  and  the  American  church  has  scarcely 
produced  a  single  confessor." 

There  is  still  another  to  be  added  to  the  formidable  obstacles 
already  enumerated,  to  the  conversion  of  the  slaves.  Their  very 
position  compels  them  to  live  in  constant  violation  of  many  of 
the  imperative  obligations  of  Christianity. 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP   IVES.  477 

The  slave  is  a  participator  of  that  humanity  with  which  the 
Saviour  clothed  himself  at  his  incarnation.  As  a  MAN,  therefore, 
he  is  placed  by  God  in  various  relations,  imposing  corresponding 
duties ;  as  a  son,  lie  is  bound  to  honor  his  parents ;  as  a  brother, 
to  love  his  kindred,  and  relieve  their  distresses ;  as  a  husband, 
to  cleave  to  his  wife  till  parted  by  death ;  as  a  father,  to  provide 
for  the  sustenance  and  education  of  his  offspring.  But  the  law 
of  the  land  has  nullified  that  of  God,  and  insulates  the  slave 
from  all  the  relations  of  humanity,  and  abrogates  the  obligations 
resulting  from  them.  Yet  the  southern  priesthood,  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  give  their  sanction  to  this  law,  re 
ducing  to  CHATTELS  the  very  beings  for  whom  HE  died.  "Well, 
indeed,  has  a  foreign  author  remarked  : 

"  Whatever  may  have  been  the  unutterable  wickedness  of  slavery 
in  the  West  India  Islands,  there  it  never  was  baptized  in  the  Redeem 
er's  hallowed  name,  and  its  corruptions  were  not  concealed  in  the  garb 
of  religion.  That  acme  of  piratical  turpitude  was  reserved  for  the  pro 
fessed  disciples  of  Jesus  in  America." 

You  flatter  yourself,  sir,  that,  could  the  Bishop  of  Oxford 
have  witnessed  the  services  at  Scuppernong  which  you  have  de 
scribed,  his  views  of  American  slavery  would  have  undergone 
such  a  total  change,  that  he  would  have  asked  instant  pardon  of 
the  American  church,  for  rebuking  her  subserviency  to  this  ter 
rific  institution.  Having  said  nothing  of  the  church  that  was 
not  literally  true,  and  substantiated  by  most  abundant  proof,  the 
bishop  could  have  had  no  motive  or  excuse  for  asking  pardon. 
So  far  from  having  his  abhorrence  of  slavery  diminished  by  the 
scenes  on  which  you  dwell  with  so  much  complacency,  he  would 
have  found  in  them  new  proofs  of  the  degeneracy  of  the  church, 
and  of  the  corrupting  influence  of  human  bondage. 

With  what  indignation  would  your  good  brother  have  wit 
nessed  the  masters  bringing  their  fellow-men  to  the  house  of 
prayer,  kneeling  with  them  at  the  Lord's  table,  partaking  with 
them  of  the  emblems  of  the  Saviour's  body  and  blood,  the  next 
day  driving  them  to  the  field  as  the  ox  to  the  furrow,  and  per 
haps  the  day  after  tearing  them  from  their  wives  and  children, 
and  selling  them  to  the  dealer  in  human  flesh,  to  be  conveyed  to 
distant  markets ! 
41 


478  JAY'S 

Think  you,  sir,  the  bishop  would  have  felt  very  penitent  for 
his  condemnation  of  slavery,  had  he,  on  leaving  Scuppernong, 
repaired  to  "Wilmington,  still  in  your  diocese,  and  there  recog 
nized  some  of  the  Easter  Sunday  communicants  among  the 
manacled  passengers  described  in  the  following  letter  ? 

"  As  I  went  on  board  the  steamboat  at  Wilmington,  I  noticed  eight 
colored  men,  handcuffed  and  chained  together  in  pairs,  four  women,  and 
eight  or  ten  children  —  all  standing  together  in  the  bow  of  the  boat,  in 
charge  of  a  man  standing  near  them.  Coming  near  them,  I  perceived 
that  they  were  all  greatly  agitated,  and,  on  inquiring,  I  found  that  they 
were  all  slaves  who  had  been  born  and  raised  in  North  Carolina,  and 
had  just  been  sold  to  a  speculator,  who  was  now  taking  them  to  the 
Charleston  market.  Upon  the  shore  was  a  number  of  colored  persons, 
women  and  children,  waiting  the  departure  of  the  boat.  My  attention 
was  particularly  arrested  by  two  colored  females,  who  stood  together 
a  little  distance  from  the  crowd,  and  upon  whose  countenances  was 
depicted  the  keenest  sorrow.  As  the  last  bell  was  tolling,  I  saw  the 
tears  gushing  from  their  eyes —  they  were  the  wives  of  two  of  the  men  in 
chains.  There,  too,  were  mothers  and  sisters,  weeping  at  the  depart 
ure  of  their  sons  and  brothers ;  and  there,  too,  were  fathers,  taking  the 
last  look  of  their  wives  and  children.  My  eye  now  turned  to  those  in 
the  boat,  and,  although  I  had  tried  to  control  my  feelings  amidst  my 
sympathy  for  those  on  shore,  I  could  conceal  them  no  more,  and  found 
myself  literally  weeping  with  those  that  wept.  I  stood  near  them, 
when  one  of  the  husbands  saw  his  wife  on  the  shore  wave  her  hand  for 
the  last  time ;  his  manly  efforts  to  restrain  his  feelings  gave  way,  and, 
fixing  his  watery  eyes  upon  her,  he  exclaimed,  '  This  is  the  most  dis 
tressing  thing  of  all  —  my  dear  wife  and  children,  farewell !'  Of  the 
poor  women  on  board,  three  of  them  had  husbands  whom  they  left  behind. 
Sailing  down  Cape  Fear  River  twenty-five  miles  we  touched  at  the 
little  village  of  Smithport,  on  the  south  side  of  the  river.  It  was  at 
this  place  that  one  of  the  slaves  lived,  and  here  were  his  wife  and  five 
children.  While  at  work  on  Monday  last,  his  purchaser  took  him  away 
from  his  family,  carried  him  in  chains  to  Wilmington,  where  he  re 
mained  in  Jail'.  As  we  approached  the  wharf,  a  flood  of  tears  burst 
from  his  eyes.  The  boat  stopped  but  a  moment,  and,  as  she  left,  he 
espied  his  wife  on  the  stoop  of  a  house  some  rods  from  the  shore,  and 
with  one  hand,  which  was  not  in  the  handcuff,  he  pulled  off  his  old 
hat,  and,  waving  it  towards  her,  he  exclaimed,  *  Farewell ! '  After  a 
few  moments'  silence,  conflicting  passions  seemed  to  tear  open  his 
breast,  and  he  exclaimed,  '  What  have  I  done,  that  I  should  suffer  this? 
Oh !  my  wife  and  children  —  I  want  to  live  no  longer  ! ' "  Christian 
Advocate  and  Journal. 

And  is  this  most  accursed  traffic  in  the  sheep  of  your  flock  an 
"  imaginary  suffering  ?  " 
Not  contented  with  lauding  the  blessedness  of  southern  sla- 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP    IVES.  479 

very,  you  proceed  to  taunt  Great  Britain  with  her  factory  sys 
tem,  and  to  sneer  at  your  brethren  of  the  mother  church  for 
riveting  such  a  system  on  their  land.  A  vast  amount  of  sym 
pathy  is  constantly  expended  by  the  dealers  in  human  flesh  on 
the  English  poor ;  and  he  who,  without  compunction,  sends  a 
mother  to  market,  or  ploughs  her  back  with  the  lasfi,  finds  his 
bowels  of  compassion  yearning  over  the  "  cruel  oppressions  "  of 
a  factory  child  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  ! 

It  was  the  declaration  of  the  Almighty,  in  reference  to  his 
own  peculiar  people,  "  the  poor  shall  never  cease  out  of  the 
land"  — a  prediction  virtually  repeated  by  our  Saviour,  and  as 
literally  fulfilled  in  regard  to  every  other  land  as  it  was  in  Pal 
estine.  No  system  of  government,  no  form  of  religion,  has  ever 
caused  the  poor  to  cease  out  of  the  land.  Much  poverty,  no 
doubt,  springs  from  bad  government  and  wicked  wars  ;  but  a 
far  larger  portion  from  the  vice,  improvidence,  indolence,  and 
misfortune,  incident  to  humanity.  Owing  to  the  corruption  of 
our  nature,  poverty  often  invites  oppression ;  which  no  govern 
ment,  however  paternal,  can  prevent.  In  our  own  land,  we  have 
armies  of  paupers,  exclusive  of  nearly  three  millions  of  our 
fellow-countrymen,  who  are  reduced  by  law  to  absolute  penury. 
Yet  this  is  the  country,  above  all  others,  in  which  extent  of  ter 
ritory,  cheapness  of  land,  and  demand  for  labor,  should  secure, 
if  possible,  a  competency  for  all.  Is  it,  then,  sir,  a  matter  of 
surprise,  that  poverty  should  abound  in  England,  where  a  popu 
lation,  nearly  equal  to  that  of  the  whole  United  States,  is  crowd 
ed  into  a  space  less  than  your  own  diocese  ?  Owing  to  British 
industry  and  enterprise,  the  wages  of  labor  are  higher  in  Eng 
land  than  in  any  other  part  of  Europe ;  and,  owing  to  the  free 
dom  of  the  press  and  of  the  government,  the  English  poor  are 
probably  the  least  oppressed  of  any  in  the  Eastern  World.  And 
yet,  of  all  the  paupers  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  it  is  only 
over  those  of  England  that  the  slave-holders  raise  "  the  note  of 
wailing." 

As  you  thought  proper  to  taunt  the  Bishop  of  Oxford  with 
"  the  cruel  oppressions  of  the  factory  system,"  it  might  have 
been  expected  that  you  would  specify  the  oppressions  to  which 


480  JAY'S  WORKS. 

you  refer,  that  it  might  be  seen  whether,  like  the  abominations 
of  North  Carolina  slavery,  they  were  authorized  by  law,  and 
sanctioned  by  bishops,  or  proceeded  solely  from  the  cupidity 
and  cruelty  of  individuals. 

It  is  also  to  be  wished,  that  you  had  condescended  to  con 
trast  the  English  and  American  factory  systems,  that  we  might 
know  wherein  we  differ.  Such  a  comparison  would  not  proba 
bly  result  as  much  to  our  credit  as  you  suppose.  The  two 
systems  differ  —  first,  in  the  rate  of  wages,  arising  from  the  dif 
ference  in  the  demand  and  supply  of  labor  in  the  two  countries  ; 
and,  secondly,  in  the  paternal  solicitude  of  the  British  Parlia 
ment  to  protect  juvenile  operatives  from  the  avarice  of  their 
employers,  and  in  the  utter  indifference  of  our  republican  legisla 
tures  on  the  subject.  You  speak  of  English  churchmen  helping 
to  rivet  the  factory  system  on  their  land.  It  is  to  be  regretted, 
sir,  that  you  deal  so  largely  in  generalities,  and  are  so  averse  to 
particular  statements.  How  and  when  have  English  churchmen 
riveted  the  factory  system  on  their  land  ?  Has  any  presbyter 
of  the  Established  Church  lauded  it  as  a  divine  institution,  and 
received  a  mitre  in  return,  through  the  influence  of  the  cotton 
spinners  ?  Has  any  bishop,  in  a  charge  to  his  clergy,  attempted 
to  vindicate  the  system  against  the  reproaches  of  the  Americans, 
by  pronouncing  the  sufferings  of  the  operatives  "  imaginary  ?  " 
or  has  he  represented  a  cotton  mill  as  a  little  heaven  upon  earth, 
because  labor  was  suspended  in  it  on  Good  Friday,  and  because 
some  of  the  hands  partook  of  the  sacrament  on  Easter  Sunday  ? 

It  is  true  the  English  bishops,  as  members  of  the  House  of 
Lords,  have  participated  in  the  enactment  of  laws  relating  to 
factories.  How  far  such  laws  authorize  the  "  cruel  oppressions  " 
to  which  you  refer,  you  do  not  tell  us  ;  but  something  of  their 
character  may  be  learned  from  the  following  official  notice  : 

"  All  the  clauses  of  the  Factories  Regulation  Act  being  now  in  full 
operation,  the  inspectors  of  factories  deem  it  expedient,  in  order  to  re 
move  any  doubts  as  to  the  employment  of  children  subject  to  restricted 
hours  of  labor,  to  issue  the  following  NOTICE  : 

"  1.  No  child  under  nine  years  of  age  can  be  employed  in  any  cotton, 
flax,  or  wool  factory. 

"  2.  No  child  between  nine  and  thirteen  years  of  age  can  be  employed 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP   IVES.  481 

or  even  allowed  to  remain  in  such  factory,  without  the  certificate  of  a 
physician  or  surgeon,  countersigned  by  a  magistrate  or  an  inspector  of 
factories,  certifying  in  the  form  set  forth  in  the  13th  section,  the 
strength  and  appearance  of  such  child. 

"  3.  No  child  between  nine  and  thirteen  years  of  age  can  be  em 
ployed  in  such  factory,  without  producing  weekly  a  schoolmaster's  cer 
tificate,  that  the  child  has,  for  two  hours  at  least,  for  six  out  of  seven 
days  of  the  week  next  preceding,  attended  his  school,  excepting  in 
cases  of  sickness,  to  be  certified  in  such  manner  as  such  inspector  may 
appoint ;  and  in  case  of  any  holiday,  and  in  case  of  absence  from  any 
other  cause  allowed  by  such  inspector,  or  by  any  justice  of  the  peace 
in  the  absence  of  the  inspector. 

"4.  No  child  between  nine  and  thirteen  years  of  age  can  be  em 
ployed  or  even  allowed  to  remain  in  such  factory  longer  than  forty- 
eight  hours  in  any  one  week,  and  not  more  than  nine  hours  in  any  one 
day. 

"  5.  No  child  under  thirteen  years  of  age  can  be  employed  in  any 
silk  mill  more  than  ten  hours  in  one  day. 

"  The  above,  and  all  other  provisions  of  the  Factories  Regulation 
Act,  together  with  all  orders  and  regulations  issued  by  the  inspectors, 
in  their  several  districts,  under  the  authority  of  this  act,  must  be 
strictly  observed,  in  the  mills  and  factories  subject  to  the  said  act. 

LEONARD  HORNER, 
THOMAS  JONES  HOWARD. 
ROBERT  S.  SAUNDERS, 

Inspectors  of  Factories. 

"WHITEHALL,   JUNE    22,    1836." 

It  was,  sir,  exceedingly  imprudent  to  provoke  a  comparison 
between  the  oppressions  of  the  slave  and  the  factory  systems. 
The  oppressions  of  a  system  are  of  course  such  as  the  system 
authorizes.  What  is  the  power,  sir,  which  the  slave  system 
authorizes  you  to  exert  over  your  slaves  ?  Chief  Justice  Hen 
derson,  of  your  own  diocese,  thus  summarily  answers  the  ques 
tion  : /i;  The  master  lias  an  almost  absolute  control  over  the  bod^ 
and  mind  of  his  slave.  The  master's  will  is  the  slave's  will."  * 
This,  surely,  sir,  is  pretty  ample  authority  to  be  confided,  even 
to  a  Christian  bishop.  But  let  us  descend  to  particulars,  and 
pursue  the  comparison  which  you  have  so  rashly  introduced  — 
let  us  contrast  the  powers  vested  in  you,  by  the  laws  of  North 
Carolina,  over  your  slave,  with  the  powers  over  his  operative 
vested  by  act  of  Parliament  in  the  English  manufacturer. 

1.    You  may  with  legal  impunity  offer  your  unoffending  slave* 

*  2  Devereaux's  North  Carolina  Reports,  543. 
41* 


482  JAY'S  WORKS, 

whether  male  or  female,  any  insult  or  outrage,  however  gross, 
not  extending  to  life  or  limb. 

The  manufacturer  is  as  responsible  in  law  for  an  outrage 
committed  on  his  operative,  as  on  any  other  person. 

2.  You  are  restricted  by  law,  under  a  penalty  of  two  hundred 
dollars,  from  teaching  your  slave  to  read.     Statutes  of  North 
Carolina,  1830. 

Tfie  manufacturer  is  allowed  by  law  to  give  his  operatives  any 
instruction  they  may  please  to  receive  ;  but  he  can  employ  no 
child  under  thirteen  years  of  age  who  has  not  at  least  two  hours 
schooling  a  day  for  six  days  in  the  week. 

3.  You  may  flog  your  slave   at   pleasure,  with  or  without 
cause ;  and  if,  instead  of  standing  still  under  your  lash,  when 
ordered  to  do  so,  he  retreats  from  you,  you  are  authorized,  by  a 
solemn  judicial  decision,  made  in  your  diocpse,  to  take  up  your 
gun  and  SHOOT  HIM.* 

The  munufacturer,  for  shooting  his  operative  under  similar 
circumstances,  would  be  convicted  of  murder,  and  undoubtedly 
hung. 

4.  You  are  permitted  by  law  (Hay wood's  Manual,  525),  to 
keep  your  slave  on  one  quart  of  corn  per  day. 

The  manufacturer  feeds  his  operative  by  contract,  or  the  lat 
ter  provides  his  own  food. 

5.  You  are  authorized  to  prevent  your  slave  from  receiving 
any  religious  instruction,  and  you  may  also  compel  him  to  re 
ceive  just  such  as  you  please. 

The  manufacturer  can  exercise  no  legal  authority  over  the 
conscience  of  his  operative. 

6.  You  may  forbid  your  slave  from  seeing  his  wife  and  chil 
dren,  and  may  send  him  to  market  where  and  when  you  think 
proper. 

The  manufacturer  has  no  similar  privileges. 

7.  You  may,  at  your  own  will  and  pleasure,  torment  your 
slave  by  scourging,  by  imprisonment,  by  clipping  his  ears,  by 
branding  him  with  a  hot  iron,  by  fastening  an  iron  collar  about 
his  neck,  and  by  the  various  modes  which  malignity  may  devise. 

*  Case  of  the  State  vs.  Man,  1  Dev.  Rep.,  p.  263,  N.  Carolina,  1829. 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP   IVES.  483 

The  manufacturer  is  responsible  to  his  operative,  as  well 
as  to  public  justice,  for  any  personal  injury  he  may  inflict  on 
him. 

8.  You  are  at  liberty,  if  your  slave  runs  away,  to  pursue  him 
with  bloodhounds  ;  and  should  he  be  torn  by  the  brutes,  you 
would  be  guiltless  —  under  the  slave  code. 

The  manufacturer,  by  similar  conduct,  would  subject  himself 
to  severe  punishment. 

9.  You  are  authorized  by  law,  if  your  slave  absconds,  and 
you  do  not  know  where  to  find  him,  to  gratify  your  vengeance 
against  him  by  offering,  in  the  public  papers,  a  reward  for  his 

MURDER. 

The  manufacturer,  for  such  an  offer  in  regard  to  his  operative, 
would  be  regarded  and  punished  as  a  villain. 

10.  You  may  compel  your  slave  to  toil  for  you  from  youth  till 
old  age,  without  other  compensation  than  such  food  and  raiment 
and  shelter  as  may  be  requisite  to  enable  him  to  labor. 

The  manufacturer  can  obtain  the  services  of  no  operative  ex 
cept  by  contract ;  and  the  wages,  whether  more  or  less,  are  such 
as  the  latter  consents  to  accept. 

11.  You  are  the  legal  proprietor  of  every  shred  of  property 
acquired  by  your  slave,  by  his  own  industry,  by  gift,  by  devise, 
or  by  accident.     If  he  picks  up  a  sixpence  in  the  street,  it  is 

YOURS. 

The  manufacturer  has  no  claim  on  his  operative,  except  for 
the  labor  he  has  agreed  to  render  for  a  certain  compensation. 

12.  The  children  of  your  female  slave  are  your  property,  and 
you  may  work,  flog,  or  sell  them,  at  will. 

The  manufacturer  has  no  authority  over  the  children  of  his 
operative,  except  by  contract  with  the  parent,  and  in  accordance 
with  the  requirements  of  an  act  of  Parliament. 

13.  You  may  compel  your  slave  to  toil  as  many  hours  in  the 
four  and  twenty,  as  his  physical  strength  may  enable  him.* 

The  manufacturer  is  restrained  by  act  of  Parliament,  from 
exacting  more  than  ten  hours  labor,  for  a  day's  work. 

*  The  law  of  South  Carolina  is  more  considerate :  it  allows  the  master  to 
compel  his  slave  to  work  only  FIFTEEN  hours  a  day  in  the  summer,  and  FOUR 
TEEN  in  winter.  2  Brevard's  Digest,  243. 


484  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Verily,  sir,  the  North  Carolina  Bishop's  little  finger  is  thicker 
than  the  Englishman's  loins.*  But  of  course  you  only  vindicate 
slavery  in  the  abstract,  not  its  abuses.  Please  to  recollect,  sir, 
that  you  have  given  your  Episcopal  sanction  to  "  SLAVERY  AS  IT 
EXISTS  AT  THE  PRESENT  DAY."  This,  in  its  most  limited  sense, 
means  slavery  as  at  present  established  l)y  law.  And  now,  sir, 
will  you  please  to  tell  us  what  are  the  abuses  of  a  legal  system 
which  takes  away  an  innocent  man's  liberty,  renders  him  a  piece 
of  animated  merchandise,  deprives  him  of  all  volition,  places 
him  entirely  at  your  will,  denies  him  all  the  fruits  of  his  labor, 
divests  him  of  the  character  of  a  son,  a  husband,  and  a  father, 
and  utterly  debars  him  from  the  pursuit  of  his  own  happiness  ? 
If  in  all  this  there  is  none  other  than  "imaginary  suffering," 
do  let  us  know  what  you  consider  the  "  cruel  oppressions  of  the 
factory  system." 

Most  dangerous,  odious,  and  corrupting  would  be  your  power 
over  your  slave,  even  were  it  intrusted  to  none  other  but  a 
RIGHT  REVEREND  FATHER  IN  GOD  ;  but,  alas  !  the  power  you 

*  "Whole  sheets,  nay,  a  volume  might  be  filled  with  illustrations  of  the 
bishop's  legal  prerogatives.  But  it  is  unnecessary  to  cumber  the  page  with 
proofs  of  what  he  will  not  deny.  He  will  not  be  rash  enough  to  challenge 
the  writer  for  proofs  of  the  alleged  atrocities  of  the  slave  laws.  To  prevent, 
however,  a  captious  objection,  it  may  be  well  to  state,  that,  strictly,  a  North 
Carolina  slave-holder  has  not  a  legal  right  to  offer  a  reward  for  the  murder  of 
his  slave,  unless  he  is  previously  outlawed,  which  he  may  be  by  two  justices, 
if  he  runs  away,  conceals  himself,  and,  to  maintain  life,  kills  a  hog,  or  any 
animal  of  the  cattle  kind.  Haywood's  Manual,  p.  521. 

In  point  of  fact,  it  is  believed  these  rewards  are  generally  offered  without 
an  outlawry;  nor  is  there  the  least  reason  to  believe  that  the  omission  of  this 
formality,  in  killing  a  slave,  would,  in  North  Carolina,  attract  any  legal  ani 
madversion.  We  give  a  few  advertisements,  from  a  great  mass  selected  from 
southern'papers,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  putrid  state  of  public  opin 
ion  in  the  slave  States.  These'advertisements  are  revelations  of  unconscious 
villany  ;  and  their  voluntary  publication  in  the  journals  of  the  day  indicates 
that  the  atrocities  they  disclose  are  regarded  by  the  community  as  in  accor 
dance  with  common  usage  and  conventional  propriety. 

J.  P.  Ashford,  in  the  Natchez  Courier  of  21st  August,  1838.—"  Run  away,  a 
negro  girl,  called  Mary ;  has  a  small  scar  over  her  eye ;  a  good  many  teeth 
missing.  The  letter  A  is  branded  on  her  cheek  and  forehead." 

M.  Ricks,  in  the  Raleigh  Standard  (N.  C.),  18th  July,  1838.—"  Ran  away, 
a  negro  woman,  and  two  children.  A  few  days  before  she  went  off,  I  burnt 
her  with  a  hot  iron,  on  the  left  side  of  her  face.  I  tried  to  make  the  letter  M." 

A.  Ross,  in  "  Charleston  (S.  C.)  Courier,"  of  1825.— "Ran  away,  a  negro 
girl,  sixteen  or  seventeen  years  of  age.  Lately  branded  on  the  left  cheek 
thus — R,  and  a  piece  taken  out  of  he:  ear  on  the  same  side.  The  same  letter 
on  the  inside  of  her  legs." 

T.  Engry,  in  the  New  Orleans  Bee,  of  27th  October,  1837.— "  Ran  away, 
negress  Caroline;  had  on  a  collar  with  one  prong  turned  down." 


LETTER    TO   BISHOP   IVES.  485 

possess  is,  in  your  diocese,  a  vendible  commodity  ;  and  any  vile, 
brutal  infidel,  may,  for  a  little  money,  or  by  virtue  of  a  gift  or 
devise,  acquire  the  same  tremendous  legal  prerogatives  over 
his  slave,  as  are  enjoyed  by  yourself. 

If  slavery  be  indeed  an  institution  so  evidently  enjoying  the 
divine  sanction,  that  it  is  presumption  to  pronounce  it  wrong, 
it  must  be  a  good  institution,  and  Christian  benevolence  must 
require  us  to  labor  for. its  extension.  This  duty  is  indeed  zeal 
ously  discharged  at  present  by  our  southern  brethren,  but  under 
the  exoteric  plea  of  "  extending  the  area  of  human  freedom." 
But  why  mask  with  a  lie  a  work  of  love  and  mercy,  which  God 
approves  ? 

There  are  considerations  connected  with  the  efforts  of  the 
southern  clergy  to  sustain  slavery,  which  they  would  do  well  to 
ponder :  If  the  condition  of  the  slave  be,  as  most  of  them  confess 
it  is,  generally  unfavorable  to  religious  faith  and  personal  holi 
ness,  then  there  is  danger  that,  at  the  great  day  of  account,  the 
blood  of  souls  will  be  found  on  the  skirts  of  those  who  have 
striven  to  justify  and  to  perpetuate  that  condition. 

J.  Henderson,  in  the  Grand  Gulf  (Miss.)  Advertiser,  of  20th  of  August, 
1838. — "Ran  away,  a  black  woman,  Betsey;  had  an  iron  bar  on  her  right 
leg." 

J.  Macoin,  in  the  New  Orleans  Bee,  llth  August,  1838. — "  Ran  away,  the 
negress  Fanny ;  had  on  an  iron  band  about  her  neck." 

T.  J.  De  Tampert,  in  the  Mobile  Chronicle,  June  15,  1838. — "  Ran  away,  a 
negro  boy,  about  twelve  years  old ;  had  round  his  neck  a  chain  dog  collar,  with 
De  Tampert  engraven  on  it. 

Peter  Campbell,  in  the  Charleston  Courier,  February  26, 1836,  after  describ 
ing  two  runaways,  adds,  "  Two  hundred  dollars  will  be  given  for  Billy,  and 
one  hundred  dollars  for  Pompey,  if  lodged  in  jail ;  or  fifty  dollars  for  BILLY'S 

HEAD." 

W.  D.  Cobb,  in  the  Newbern  (N.  C.)  Spectator,  2d  December,  1836.—"  I 
will  give  the  reward  of  one  hundred  dollars  for  the  above  negroes,  to  be  deliv 
ered  to  me,  or  confined  in  the  jail  of  Lenoir  or  Jones  county,  or  for  killing 
them  so  that  I  can  see  them." 

Durant  H.  Rhodes,  in  the  Wilmington  (N.  C.)  Advertiser,  13th  July,  1838. 
"  Ran  away,  my  negro  man,  Richard.  A  reward  of  twenty-five  dollars  will 
be  given  for  his  apprehension,  dead  or  alive.  Satisfactory  proof  will  only  be 
required  of  his  being  KILLED." 

Enoch  Foy,  in  the  Newborn  (N.  C.)  Spectator,  5th  January,  1838.— "Ran 
away,  a  negro  man,  Sampson.  Should  he  resist  in  being  taken,  so  that  vio 
lence  is  necessary  to  arrest  him,  I  will  not  hold  any  person  liable  for  damages 
should  the  slave  be  killed." 

J.  McDonald,  in  the  Appalachicola  Gazette,  9th  May,  1841,  advertises 
three  runaway  slaves,  and  offers  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  "to  any  one 
who  will  KILL  THE  THREE,  or  fifty  for  either  one." 


486  JAY'S  WORKS* 

Every  man,  without  exception,  when  he  makes  the  case  his 
own,  and  examines  it  solely  by  the  light  of  nature,  pronounces 
slavery  a  sin  and  a  curse.  Now,  it  is  very  possible  that  many 
who  may  be  convinced,  by  the  labors  of  yourself  and  others, 
that  slavery  is  sanctioned  by  the  Gospel,  may  also  arrive  at  the 
conclusion  that  a  religion,  thus  outraging  the  moral  sense  im 
planted  in  the  human  heart  by  the  Creator,  canrtot  proceed  from 
Him.* 

A  portentous  infidel  philanthropy  is  rife  in  the  land,  false 
and  delusive  in  its  professions,  and  tending  in  its  consequences 
to  anarchy  and  misery.  Founded  not  on  the  love  of  God,  and 
obedience  to  his  commands,  but  on  wild  abstract  political  theo 
ries,  it  pretends  to  seek  the  happiness  of  mankind  by  means 
which  can  have  no  influence  in  purifying  the  heart,  and  check 
ing  the  progress  of  vice.  Those  who  watch  the  signs  of  the 
times,  not  from  the  retirement  of  their  studies,  but  amid  the 
busy  haunts  of  men,  KNOW  that  the  conduct  of  many  of  the 
clergy  has  given  to  this  spurious  philanthropy  a  mighty  and 
most  disastrous  impulse. f  They  are  constantly  seen  tithing 
mint,  and  anise,  and  cummin,  and  all  manner  of  herbs,  while 
mercy  and  justice,  so  far  as  regards  the  colored  population,  are 
apparently  utterly  disregarded  by  them.  The  public  has  wit 
nessed  a  reverend  assembly  of  divines  discussing  day  after  day 
the  sinfulness  of  marrying  the  sister  of  a  deceased  wife,  and  at 

*  Said  Mr.  Fries,  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  in  reference  to  a  southern 
member  who  had  attempted  a  biblical  vindication  of  slavery  :  "I  wish  it  to 
be  distinctly  understood  by  my  constituents  and  the  country,  IF  it  (Ameri 
can  slavery)  is  proved  to  be  a  divine  institution,  sanctioned  by  the  word  of 
God,  I  AM  AN  INFIDEL  ;  but  gentlemen  must  pardon  me,  if  I  do  not  adopt 
their  construction  of  the  Bible  on  this  point." 

•f-  This  truth  is  admitted  and  deplored  in  a  late  publication  by  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Patton,  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  entitled,  "  Pro-Slavery  Interpretations  of 
the  Bible  productive  of  Infidelity."  Says  the  reverend  author,  "Infidels 
profess  to  go  for  a  reformation  in  morals,  and  they  boldly  contend  that 
Christianity  is  the  chief  obstacle  in  the  way  of  success.  They  declare  that 
the  church  and  the  Bible  are  corrupt  on  the  score  of  morals,  and  that  so  far 
from  an  argument  being  derived  from  that  quarter  in  favor  of  Christianity, 
the  very  reverse  is  true  ;"  and  he  quotes  the  following  avowal  made  by  an 
infidel  at  a  recent  convention  of  free-thinkers  in  New  York :  "  I  have  done 
with  the  old  arguments  against  Christianity,  and  have  adopted  a  more  effi 
cient  plan.  Now,  I  work  altogether  through  the  moral  reformations  of  the 
day,  and  through  them  attack  religion,  and  find  I  can  accomplish  more  than 
by  any  other  means." 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP   IVES.  487 

last  deposing  from  the  ministry  a  brother  who  had  committed 
the  offence.  Yet  had  this  same  brother  bought  another  man's 
wife,  used  her  as  his  beast  of  burden,  tore  from  her  her  chil 
dren  as  they  became  fit  for  market,  and  finally  disposed  of  her 
to  some  trafficker  in  human  flesh,  no  ecclesiastical  censure 
would  have  fallen  upon  him,  and  he  would  have  been  freely 
welcomed  to  tlie  pulpits  of  the  very  men  who  deposed  him. 
We  have  had  pastoral  admonitions  against  dancing,  and  sermons 
in  abundance  in  favor  of  human  bondage  ;  nay,  right  reverend 
fathers  in  God  proclaim,  that  "  no  man  nor  set  of  men  in  our 
day,  unless  they  can  produce  a  new  revelation  from  Heaven, 
are  entitled*  to  pronounce  slavery  ivrong"  and  that  "  slavery  as 
it  exists  at  the  present  day  is  agreeable  to  the  order  of  Divine 
Providence."  We  have  Bible  Societies  for  supplying  the  desti 
tute,  and  our  churches  and  halls  resound  with  eulogiums  on  the 
sacred  volume,  but  scarcely  a  solitary  minister  at  the  South  is 
known  to  suggest,  that  possibly  the  laws  which  virtually  forbid 
one-half  of  the  population  to  read  the  Bible,  may  not  be  acceptable 
to  its  Divine  Author,  while  the  Bible  society  of  the  largest  city 
in  the  South  disclaims  all  intention  of  giving  Bibles  to  slaves. 
Great  discussions  as  well  as  heats  are  excited  by  the  question 
whether  the  word  baptize  or  immerse  shall  be  inserted  in  Bibles 
intended  for  heathen  in  Asia,  but  the  most  profound  apathy  is 
evinced  on  the  question  whether  any  Bible  at  all  shall  be  given 
to  the  "  nation  of  heathen  in  our  very  midst."  Missionaries  are 
sent  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  but  to  three  millions  of  our  own 
countrymen  groaning  in  bondage,  and  sunk  in  ignorance,  is  given 
only  a  little  "  oral  instruction,"  and  of  that  little,  no  small  por 
tion  is  confined  to  the  duty  of  obedience,  and  the  sin  of  running 
away. 

Much  is  said  of  the  importance  of  a  learned  ministry,  and 
contributions  are  solicited  from  the  pious,  to  found  and  maintain 
theological  seminaries.  Yet  no  sooner  does  a  candidate  for 
holy  orders  apply  for  the  instruction  thus  provided,  than  rever 
end  and  right  reverend  trustees  proceed  to  inspect  the  tincture 
of  his  skin,  and  unless  it  rises  to  the  othodox  standard,  the  door 
of  the  seminary  is  shut  in  his  face.  We  have  in  certain  quar- 


488 

ters,  line  upon  line,  and  precept  upon  precept,  on  the  necessity, 
the  importance,  the  dignity  of  apostolic  succession.  But  when 
this  "  heavenly  gift  of  ministerial  commission,"  is  borne  by  an 
ambassador  of  Christ  not  colored  like  themselves,  bishops  and 
presbyters  are  seen  treating  the  "  heavenly  gift "  with  contume 
ly,  rarely  if  ever  admitting  the  possessor  into  their  pulpits,  and 
scornfully  a*hd  lawlessly  refusing  him  a  seat  in  the  council  of 
the  church. 

We  have  among  us,  a  poor,  ignorant,  persecuted,  but  unof 
fending  people.  They  are  the  least  of  Christ's  brethren,  and  as 
such,  are  specially  commissioned  by  HIM  to  receive  in  his  be 
half  the  tokens  of  our  love  and  gratitude.  Are  we  taught  by 
our  pastors  thus  to  regard  them  ?  Does  the  noisy  demagogue, 
prating  about  equal  rights  and  universal  suffrage,  find  no  apolo 
gy  for  giving  the  lie  to  his  professions,  and  trampling  upon  his 
colored  fellow  citizens,  in  the  conduct  of  the  Church  herself  ? 
Will  those  who  drive  from  the  schools  of  the  prophets,  youths 
anxious  to  qualify  themselves  for  the  service  of  our  common 
Lord,  venture  to  rebuke  the  inhumanity  of  the  proprietors  of 
our  stage-coaches,  our  packets,  and  our  railroads,  for  excluding 
from  their  conveyances,  these  unhappy  people,  however  decent 
their  deportment,  and  however  urgent  their  business  ?  The 
Jews  despised  the  Samaritans,  and  were  too  proud  to  receive  at 
their  hands  even  a  cup  of  water.  But  the  Saviour,  disregard 
ing  an  unholy  although  popular  prejudice,  ate  and  drank  and 
lodged  with  them  ;  declared  to  them  his  divine  mission,  and  in 
his  inimitable  parable,  selected  one  of  them  as  an  illustration  of 
the  great  law  of  love,  to  the  condemnation  of  the  proud  and 
heartless  but  orthodox  Priest  and  Levite. 

Surely  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  efforts  of  so  large  a  por 
tion  of  the  Christian  ministry  to  sanctify  SLAVERY  and  CASTE, 
should  give  great  occasion  to  the  enemies  of  the  Lord  to  blas 
pheme,  and  to  His  friends  for  grief  and  perplexity.  No  small 
number  of  those  friends,  failing  to  make  due  allowance  for  the 
frailty  of  our  fallen  nature,  and  forgetting  the  trials  arising  from 
the  dependence  of  the  clergy  on  popular  support,  have  rashly 
and  weakly  imagined,  that  the  influence  of  the  church  is  neces- 


LETTER    TO    BISHOP    IVES.  489 

sarily  adverse  to  an  enlarged  and  practical  application  of  the 
benevolent  precepts  of  tlie  Gospel.  Hence  they  have  unhappily 
indulged  the  vain  expectation  that  they  could  cherish  more 
freely  the  benign  impulses  of  Christianity  when  released  from 
the  restraints  of  ecclesiastical  organizations.  Such  men,  by 
gradually  neglecting  the  appointed  means  of  grace,  have  made 
shipwreck  of  their  faith,  and  listening  to  the  voice  of  the  charm 
er,  and  deluding  themselves  with  the  belief  that  they  were 
doing  God  service,  have  united  with  demagogues,  scoffers,  and 
infidels  in  unholy  and  chimerical  schemes  of  expansive  benevo 
lence. 

It  may  well  be  questioned,  how  far  those  who  by  the  most 
solemn  vows  have  dedicated  themselves  to  the  service  of  the 
sanctuary,  can  lawfully  confine  their  time  and  labor  to  the  re 
moval  of  any  one  moral  or  political  evil.  They  are  to  declare 
the  ivhole  counsel  of  God,  and  to  watch  over  and  feed  the  flocks 
entrusted  to  their  charge.  But  the  ministers  of  Christ  are 
faithless  to  their  high  and  holy  mission,  when  in  the  name  of 
their  Master,  they  give  their  assent  to  injustice  and  cruelty 
and  oppression ;  and  by  their  own  example,  teach  their  people  to 
despise  the  poor  and  helpless.  The  great  Head  of  the  Church 
has  warned  us  against  that  fear  of  man  which  bringeth  a  snare, 
and  demands  that  his  ambassadors  shall  deliver  his  message  of 
mercy  and  love,  regardless  alike  of  the  displeasure  of  such  as 
are  in  high  places,  and  of  the  scoffs  and  clamor  of  the  Godless 
multitude.  The  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits,  and  that  is  not  the 
religion  of  the  Gospel  which  fails  to  inculcate  glory  to  God, 
and  peace  and  good  will  to  men. 

DECEMBER,  1846. 

42 


ADDRESS 

TO  THE  INHABITANTS  OF  NEW  MEXICO  AND  CALIFORNIA,  ON 
THE  OMISSION  BY  CONGRESS  TO  PROVIDE  THEM  WITH 
TERRITORIAL  GOVERNMENTS,  AND  ON  THE  SO 
CIAL  AND  POLITICAL  EVILS  OF  SLAVERY. 


FRIENDS  AND  FELOW  COUNTRYMEN: 

A  NUMBER  of  citizens  interested  in  your  welfare,  and  anxious 
to  promote  your  prosperity,  have  deputed  us  to  address  you  in 
the  present  crisis  of  your  affairs.  It  may  be  in  our  power  to 
communicate  to  you  facts  with  which  you  are  not  familiar,  and 
to  offer  you  considerations  deserving  your  reflection.  We  there 
fore  solicit  your  patient  and  dispassionate  attention. 

You  complain  that  since  your  annexation  to  the  United  States, 
you  have  been  denied  the  protection  and  advantages  of  civil 
government.  Your  complaint  is  well-founded,  and  the  solemn 
promises  made  to  you  in  the  name  of  the  Federal  Government 
have  been  most  flagrantly  violated.  Pains  have  been  and  will  be 
taken  to  deceive  you  as  to  the  persons  who  have,  in  denying  you 
a  government,  been  regardless  alike  of  your  rights  and  your  in 
terests.  Permit  us  first  to  remind  you  of  the  solemn  and  official 
pledges  made  to  you,  and  then  to  show  you  by  whom,  and  from 
what  motives,  those  pledges  have  been  broken. 

On  the  7th  July,  1846,  Commodore  Sloat  landed  at  Monterey, 


492  JAY'S  WORKS. 

and  taking  possession  of  California  by  right  of  conquest,  declared 
in  his  proclamation  addressed  to  the  inhabitants  : 

"  Henceforth  California  will  be  a  portion  of  the  United  States,  and 
its  peaceable  inhabitants  will  enjoy  the  same  rights  and  privileges  as 
the  citizens  of  any  other  portion  of  that  territory,  with  all  the  rights 
and  privileges  they  now  enjoy,  together  with  the  privilege  of  choosing 
their  own  magistrates  and  other  officers,  for  the  administration  of  jus 
tice  among  themselves." 

On  the  17th  August  of  the  same  year,  R.  F.  Stockton,  "  Gov 
ernor  of  the  territory  of  California,"  by  proclamation  thus  con 
firmed  the  promise  given  by  Commodore  Sloat : 

"  The  territory  of  California  now  belongs  to  the  United  States,  and 
will  be  governed  as  soon  as  circumstances  may  permit  ~by  officers  and 
laws  similar  to  those  by  which  the  other  territories  of  the  United  States 
are  regulated  and  protected." 

General  Kearney  succeeded  Stockton  as  Governor,  and  on 
the  1st  of  March,  1847,  addressed  a  proclamation  to  the  inhabi 
tants,  in  which,  avowedly  under  instructions  from  the  President, 
he  declared : 

"  It  is  the  wish  and  intention  of  the  United  States  to  procure  for  Cal 
ifornia,  as  speedily  as  possible,  a  free  government  like  that  of  their  own 
territories,  and  they  will  very  soon  invite  the  inhabitants  to  exercise 
the  rights  of  free  citizens,  with  the  choice  of  their  own  representatives, 
who  may  enact  such  laws  as  they  may  deem  best  adapted  to  their  own 
interests  and  well-being." 

The. people  of  New  Mexico  were  in  like  manner  assured  by 
Gen.  Kearney  on  the  18th  August,  184G,  in  a  proclamation  is 
sued  by  him  at  Sante  Fe  : 

"  It  is  the  wish  and  intention  of  the  United  States  to  provide  for 
New  Mexico  a,  free  government  with  the  least  possible  delay,  similar  to 
those  in  the  United  States,  and  the  people  of  New  Mexico  will  then  be 
called  to  exercise  the  rights  of  freemen  in  electing  their  own  represen 
tatives  to  the  territorial  government." 

Such  were  the  full  and  explicit  pledges  given  to  the  people  of 
both  provinces.  They  were  to  have  territorial  legislatures,  and 
elect  their  own  representatives.  But  perhaps  these  pledges  were 


NEW   MEXICO   AND    CALIFORNIA.  493 

unauthorized  by  the  Cabinet  at  Washington.  Unhappily  for 
the  faith  and  honor  of  the  Federal  Government,  such  a  supposi 
tion  is  refuted  by  the  instructions  given  to  Gen.  Kearney,  dated 
at  Washington,  3d  June,  1846: 

"  Should  you  conquer  and  take  possession  of  New  Mexico  and  Cal 
ifornia,  you  may  assure  the  people  of  those  provinces  that  it  is  the  wish 
and  design  of  the  United  States  to  provide  for  them  a,  free  government 
with  the  least  possible  delay,  similar  to  that  which  exists  in  our  Territo 
ries.  They  will  then  be  called  to  exercise  the  rights  of  freemen  in  elect 
ing  tJieir  own  representatives  to  the  territorial  legislature." 

How  have  these  solemn  and  repeated  pledges  been  redeemed  ? 

In  December,  1847,  the  President  recommended  Congress  to 
provide  for  the  adjoining  territory  of  Oregon  a  territorial  govern 
ment,  adding  that  the  people  "  should  have  the  right  of  suffrage, 
be  represented  in  a  territorial  legislature,  and  by  a  delegate  in 
Congress."  This  then  by  his  own  pledges  was  the  model  of  the 
government  to  be  provided  for  you ;  yet  no  such  recommendation 
was  ever  made  by  him  in  regard  to  you.  Slave-holders  intended 
to  move  into  your  territory  with  their  slaves,  and  slave-breeders 
were  anxious  to  open  for  their  stock  new  markets  on  your  soil. 
But  it  was  known  that  you  were  averse  to  human  bondage,  and 
if  intrusted  with  the  promised  powers  of  self-government,  those 
powers  would  be  exercised  in  behalf  of  human  rights.  Hence 
it  was  determined,  in  utter  contempt  of  all  the  pledges  made  to 
you,  to  keep  you  in  a  state  of  vassalage,  until  slavery  had  been 
irrevocably  fastened  upon  you.  Three  territories,  Oregon,  New 
Mexico,  and  California,  were  to  be  organized.  In  the  first  of 
these,  the  people  had  already  formed  a  provisional  government, 
and  had  had  the  wisdom  and  virtue  to  prohibit  slavery.  Of  this 
territory,  the  slave-holders  had  no  hope  of  gaining  possession; 
their  designs  were  centered  on  the  other  two.  To  facilitate 
those  designs,  the  Senate,  consisting  one-half  of  slave-holders, 
by  the  aid  and  treachery  of  a  few  northern  members  passed  a 
bill  (July  22,  1848)  for  the  organization  of  the  three  territories. 
By  this  bill,  such  a  government  was  given  to  Oregon  as  had 
been  promised  to  you.  The  people  were  invested  with  the  right 
of  suffrage,  and  a  territorial  legislature  was  established,  consist- 
42* 


494  JAY'S  WORKS. 

ing  of  representatives  chosen  by  the  inhabitants.  To  New  Mex 
ico  and  California  were  assigned  despotic  governments,  exercised 
by  officers  named  by  the  President,-  while  the  people  of  the 
two  territories  were  as  totally  excluded  from  all  participation  in 
the  choice  of  rulers  and  the  enactment  of  laws,  as  the  negro 
slaves  of  South  Carolina.  Not  a  ballot-box  was  to  be  seen 
throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the  new  territories.  Thus  did 
the  President  and  his  partisans  redeem  the  pledges  made  to  you 
through  Sloat,  Stockton,  and  Kearney.  Your  northern  friends 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  refused  to  sanction  this  base 
perfidy,  and  rejected  the  bill.  Do  you  complain  that  you  were 
thus  deprived  of  a  government  to  be  administered  by  the  Pres 
ident's  delegates,  a  government  in  which  you  had  no  part  or  lot, 
a  government  which  falsified  the  pledges  given  you,  which  in 
sulted  and  degraded  you  by  treating  you  as  a  conquered  and 
servile  race,  while  all  the  privileges  of  American  citizens  prom 
ised  to  you  were  given  in  full  measure  to  your  neighbors  ?  No, 
you  feel  and  acknowledge  the  protecting  care  of  your  friends^ 
and  will  see  in  their  rejection  of  this  base  attempt  to  cheat  and 
humble  you,  an  earnest  of  their  future  devotion  to  your  best  in 
terests.  But  justice  to  Oregon  required  that  she  should  not  be 
left  without  a  government  merely  because  the  slave-holders  wished 
to  wrong  you.  The  House  of  Representatives  therefore  passed 
a  separate  bill,  establishing  a  territorial  government  for  that  ter 
ritory,  and  in  compliance  with  the  wish  of  the  inhabitants  in 
serted  in  it  a  clause  securing  them  forever  from  the  curse  of 
slavery.  This  bill  became  a  law  at  the  end  of  the  session,  but 
the  President,  on  affixing  his  signature  to  it,  made  a  declaration 
in  writing  that  he  would  have  vetoed  a  similar  bill  for  you ! 
Regardless  of  this  insulting  announcement,  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  early  the  next  session  prepared  two  separate  bills, 
giving  a  territorial  government  to  New  Mexico  and  California, 
in  conformity  with  the  previous  pledges,  and  similar  in  its  pro 
visions  to  that  given  to  Oregon,  and  protecting  the  two  terri 
tories  from  slavery.  For  want  of  time,  only  the  bill  for  California 
was  passed.  It  was  sent  to  the  Senate,  and  that  body  by  a 
formal  vote  refused  even  to  take  it  into  consideration  !  On  the 


NEW   MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA. 

13th  of  December,  the  petition  from  the  people  of  New 
praying  for  a  territorial  government,  and  to  be  protected  from 
slavery,  was  presented  to  the  Senate.  Mr.  Calhoun,  the  leader 
of  the  slave-holders,  instantly  denounced  it  as  "  disrespectful  and 
MOST  INSOLENT,"  and  the  petitioners  were  spoken  of  as  "a  con 
quered  people." 

At  the  close  of  the  session  the  usual  appropriation  bill  pro 
viding  for  the  expenses  of  the  Federal  Government  was  passed 
by  the  House  of  Representatives.  The  slave-holders  no\v  thought 
they  had  an  opportunity  of  coercing  your  friends  into  a  sacrifice 
of  your  interests.  A  clause  was  added  to  the  bill  extending  the 
Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States  over  the  two  territo 
ries,  and  vesting  in  the  President  unlimited  powers  of  gov 
ernment,  and  the  appointment  of  officers  at  his  discretion.  It 
mattered  not  that  all  this  was  in  contemptuous  violation  of  the 
pledges  given  you.  A  purpose  was  to  be  served.  By  the 
acknowledged  laws  of  nations,  a  conquered  people  retain  their  own 
laws  till  altered  by  the  new  sovereign.  Your  laws  prohibiting 
slavery  had  not  been  repealed  by  the  conquest.  It  was  con 
tended  that  the  extension  of  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the 
United  States  over  the  two  territories  would  virtually  repeal  the 
existing  laws,  and  thus  open  the  door  for  the  establishment  of 
negro  slavery  among  you.  The  loss  of  the  appropriation  bill 
would  throw  the  whole  fiscal  affairs  of  the  government  into 
confusion.  The  debts  due  to  individuals  would  be  suspended. 
Salaries  would  remain  unpaid,  &c.,  &c.  It  was  hoped  your 
friends  would  shrink  from  the  responsibility  of  causing  such 
wide-spread  disorder  by  rejecting  the  bill  on  account  of  the  ob 
noxious  clause  outraging  your  rights.  Yet  your  interests  required 
that  some  government  should  be  established  for  you,  and  almost 
any  temporary  government  was  better  than  none.  The  House 
had  in  vain  attempted  to  give  you  a  proper  one,  and  to  preserve 
you  from  anarchy,  they  accepted  the  miserable  substitute  pro 
vided  by  the  slave-holders,  but  defeated  the  object  for  which 
that  substitute  had  been  contrived,  by  adding  a  clause  recogniz 
ing  and  continuing  in  force  your  existing  laws.  On  this  the 
Senate  abandoned  their  plan,  passed  the  appropriation  bill 


496  JAY'S  WOKKS. 

securing  their  own  pay,  and  adjourned,  leaving  you  a  prey  to 
anarchy. 

Soon  after  the  adjournment,  Mr.  Foote,  one  of  the  senators 
devoted  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  published  an  article  declar 
ing  that  he  was  "  authorized  to  say "  that  if  the  amendment 
recognizing  your  existing  laws  had  been  agreed  to,  "  it  would 
inevitably  have  defeated  the  civil  and  diplomatic  appropriation 
bill,  as  President  Polk  had  already  in  part  prepared  his  veto  to 
the  bill!" 

The  slave  power  has  resolved  that  you  shall  have  no  govern 
ment  but  such  as  shall  establish  the  dominion  of  the  WHIP. 
From  a  dominion  so  loathsome  and  blighting,  your  northern 
friends  have  hitherto  rescued  you ;  and  to  explain  their  motives, 
and  to  invite  your  earnest  cooperation,  we  now  proceed  to  lay 
before  you  a  statement  of  some  of  the  moral  and  political  evils 
experienced  in  the  United  States  from  the  same  accursed  insti 
tution  with  which  you  are  threatened.  Never  have  the  com 
parative  influences  of  free  and  slave  labor  on  public  prosperity 
and  happiness  been  more  fairly  tested,  or  more  certainly  decided 
than  in  this  country.  Of  the  thirty  States  composing  our  Union, 
fifteen  maintain  and  enforce,  and  fifteen  reject  and  abhor  the 
principle  of  property  in  men,  women  and  children.  By  ponder 
ing  the  facts  we  are  about  to  present,  you  will  be  enabled  to 
judge  whether  your  northern  friends  in  the  course  they  have 
pursued  have  consulted  or  sacrificed  your  true  interests. 

Slavery  is  an  institution  exclusively  for  the  rich.  We  might 
as  well  talk  of  poor  men  owning  herds  of  cattle  and  studs  of 
horses,  as  gangs  of  negroes.  When  an  infant  will  bring  a 
hundred,  a  woman  four  or  five  hundred,  and  a  man  from  eight 
hundred  to  a  thousand  dollars,  slaves  are  not  commodities  to  be 
found  in  the  cabins  of  the  poor.  There  is  also  a  peculiarity  in 
slave  labor  that  necessarily  confines  it  to  the  wealthy.  The 
women  and  children,  being  property,  must  be  owned  together 
with  the  male  laborers.  Hence  it  is  almost  impossible  to  find  a 
master  who  is  the  possessor  of  only  a  single  slave.  Our  last 
census  shows  that  the  two  sexes  among  the  slaves  are  about 
equal  in  number,  and  that  there  are  two  children  under  ten 


NEW   MEXICO   AND    CALIFORNIA.  497 

years  of  age  for  every  male  above  that  age.  Hence  if  a  planter 
owns  three  men,  we  may  take  it  for  granted  that  his  slave  family 
consists  of  at  least  twelve  persons,  viz.,  three  men,  three  women, 
and  six  children.  It  has  been  ascertained  by  various  statistics 
that  the  whole  number  of  slave-holders  in  the  United  States  is 
probably  less  than  248,000,  not  one-third  of  the  adult  white 
male  population  of  the  United  States.  Yet  this  small  body  of 
men  engross  the  greater  portion  of  the  land  and  wealth  of  the 
slave  region,  forming  in  fact  a  powerful  feudal  aristocracy,  pos 
sessing  nearly  three  millions  of  serfs,  and  governing  and  oppress 
ing  at  pleasure  the  rest  of  the  population.  They  are  always 
banded  together  for  the  preservation  and  extension  of  their  own 
power,  and  always,  for  obvious  reasons,  endeavoring  to  identify 
their  private  interests  with  the  public  welfare.  In  what  man 
ner  that  welfare  is  promoted  by  their  guardianship,  we  will  now 
show  you. 

1.    INCREASE    OF   POPULATION. 

The  ratio  of  increase  of  population,  especially  in  this  country, 
is  one  of  the  surest  tests  of  public  prosperity.  Let  us  then  here 
examine  the  impartial  testimony  of  the  late  census.  From  this 
we  learn  that  the  increase  of  population  in  the  free  States  from 
1830  to  1840,  wras  at  the  rate  of  thirty-eight  per  cent.,  while  the 
increase  of  the  free  population  in  the  slave  States  \vas  only 
twenty-three  per  cent.  Why  this  difference  of  fifteen  in  the 
two  ratios  ?  No  other  cause  can  be  assigned  than  slavery,  which 
drives  from  their  borders  many  of  the  virtuous  and  enterprising, 
and  at  the  same  time  deters  emigrants  from  other  States  and 
from  foreign  countries  from  settling  among  them.  , 

The  influence  of  slavery  on  population  is  strikingly  illustrated 
by  a  comparison  between  Kentucky  and  Ohio.  These  two 
States  are  of  nearly  equal  areas,  Kentucky,  however,  having 
about  3000  square  miles  more  than  the  other.*  They  are  sep 
arated  only  by  a  river,  and  are  both  remarkable  for  the  fertility 
of  their  soil ;  but  one  has,  from  the  beginning,  been  cursed  with 

*  American  Almanac  for  1843,  p.  206. 


498  JAY'S  WORKS. 

slavery,  and  the  other  blessed  with  freedom.     Now  mark  their 
respective  careers. 

In  1792,  Kentucky  was  erected  into  a  State,  and  Ohio  in 
1802. 

(23   Free  population  of  Kentucky.  Free  population  of  Ohio. 

1790, 61,227, A  wilderness. 

1800, 180,612, 45,365 

1810, 325,950, 230,760 

1820, 437,585, 581,434 

1830, 522,704, 937,903 

1840, 597,570, 1,519,467 

The  representation  of  the  two  States  in  Congress,  has  been 
as  follows : 

Kentucky.  Ohio. 

1802, 6, 1 

1812, 9, 6 

1822, 12, 14 

1832, 13, 19 

1842, 10, 21 

The  value  of  land,  other  things  being  equal,  is  in  proportion 
to  the  density  of  the  population.  Now  the  population  of  Ohio 
is  38.8  to  a  square  mile,  while  the  free  population  of  Kentucky 
is  but  14.2  to  a  square  mile  —  and  probably  the  price  of  land  in 
the  two  States  is  much  in  the  same  proportion.  We  are  told, 
much  of  the  wealth  is  invested  in  negroes  —  yet  it  obviously  is 
a  wealth  that  impoverishes ;  and  no  stronger  evidence  of  the 
truth  of  this  assertion  is  needed,  than  the  comparative  price  of 
land  in  the  free  and  slave  States.  The  two  principal  cities  of 
Kentucky  and  Ohio  are  Louisville  and  Cincinnati ;  the  former 
with  a  population  of  21,210,  the  latter  with  a  population  of 
46,338.  Why  this  difference  ?  The  question  is  answered  by 
the  Louisville  Journal.  The  editor,  speaking  of  the  t^o  rivial 
cities,  remarks  : 

"  The  most  potenf  cause  of  the  more  rapid  advancement  of  Cincin 
nati  than  Louisville  is  the  ABSENCE  OF  SLAVERY.  The  same  influ 
ences  -which  made  Ohio  the  young  giant  of  the  West,  and  is  advancing 
Indiana  to  a  grade  higher  than  Kentucky,  have  operated  in  the  Queen 
City.  They  have  no  dead  weight  to  carry,  and  consequently  have  the 
advantage  in  the  race." 


NEW  MEXICO   AND    CALIFORNIA.  499 

In  1840,  Mr.  C.  M.  Clay,  a  member  of  the  Kentucky  Legisla 
ture,  published  a  pamphlet  against  the  repeal  of  the  law  prohib 
iting  the  importation  of  slaves  from  the  other  States.  We 
extract  the  following : 

"  The  world  is  teaming  with  improved  machinery,  the  combined 
development  of  science  and  art.  To  us  it  is  all  lost;  we  are  compara 
tively  living  in  centuries  that  are  gone  ;  we  cannot  make  it,  we  cannot 
use  it  when  made.  Ohio  is  many  years  younger,  and  possessed  of  fewer 
advantages  than  our  State.  Cincinnati  has  manufactories  to  sustain 
her ;  last  year  she  put  up  one  thousand  houses.  Louisville,  with  supe 
rior  natural  advantages,  as  all  the  world  knows,  wrote  '  to  rent/  upon 
many  of  her  houses.  OHIO  is  A  FREE  STATE,  KENTUCKY  A  SLAVE 
STATE." 

Mr.  Thomas  F.  Marshall,  of  Kentucky,  in  a  pamphlet  pub 
lished  the  same  year,  and  on  the  same  subject,  draws  the  follow 
ing  comparison  between  Virginia  and  New  York  : 

"In  1790,  Virginia,  with  70,000  square  miles  of  territory, contained 
a  population  of  749,308.  New  York,  upon  a  surface  of  45,658  square 
miles,  contained  a  population  of  344,120.  This  statement  exhibits  in 
favor  of  Virginia  a  difference  of  24,342  square  miles  of  territory,  and 
405,188  in  population,  which  is  the  double  of  New  York,  and  68,600 
more.  In  1830,  after  a  race  of  forty  years,  Virginia  is  found  to  con 
tain  1,211,405  souls,  and  New  York  1,918,608,  which  exhibits  a  differ 
ence  in  favor  of  New  York  of  707,203.  The  increase  on  the  part  of 
Virginia  will  be  perceived  to  be  462,097,  starting  from  a  basis  more 
than  twice  as  large  as  that  of  New  York:  The  increase  of  New 
York,  upon  a  basis  of  344,120,  has  been  1,574,488  human  beings. 
Virginia  has  increased  in  a  ratio  of  61  per  cent.,  and  New  York  in 
that  of  566  per  cent. 

"  The  total  amount  of  property  in  Virginia  under  the  assessment  of 
1838,  was  $211,930,508.  The  aggregate  value  of  real  and  personal 
property  in  New  York,  in  1839,  was  $654,000,000,  exhibiting  an  excess 
m  New  York  over  Virginia  of  capital  of  $442,069,492. 

"  Statesmen  may  differ  about  policy,  or  the  means  to  be  employed 
in  the  promotion  of  the  pubh'c  good,  but  surely  they  ought  to  be  agreed 
as  to  what  prosperity  means.  I  think  there  can  be  no  dispute  that 
New  York  is  a  greater,  richer,  a  more  prosperous  and  powerful  State 

than  Virginia.  What  has  occasioned  the  difference  ? 

There  is  but  one  explanation  of  the  facts  I  have  shown.  The  clog  that 
has  stayed  the  march  of  her  people,  the  incubus  that  has  weighed  down 
her  enterprise,  strangled  her  commerce,  kept  sealed  her  exhaustless 
fountains  of  mineral  wealth,  and  paralyzed  her  arts,  manufactures  and 
improvement,  is  NEGRO  SLAVERY." 


500  JAY'S  WORKS. 

These  statements  were  made  before  the  results  of  the  last 
census  were  known.  By  the  census  of  1840,  it  appears  that  in 
the  ten  preceding  years, 

The  population  of  Virginia  has  increased 28,392 

In  the  same  time  the  population  of  N.  Y.  increased 710,413 

The  rate  of  increase  in  Virginia  was 2.3  per  cent. 

"  "  New  York, 33.7 

Virginia  has  12.5  free  inhabitants  to  a  square  mile. 
New  York  52.7       "  «  "          " 

In  1790,  Massachusetts,  with  Maine,  had  but  378,717  inhabitants, 

"          Maryland, 319,728  " 

In  1840,  Massachusetts  alone, 737,699          " 

Maryland, 469,232          « 

Now  let  it  be  recollected  that  Maryland  is  nearly  double  the 
size  of  Massachusetts.  In  the  last  there  are  98.3  free  inhabi 
tants  to  the  square  mile ;  in  the  former  only  27.2. 

If  we  turn  to  the  new  States,  we  find  that  sla-very  and  free 
dom  have  the  same  influence  on  population  as  in  the  old.  ..  Take, 
for  instance,  Michigan  and  Arkansas.  They  came  into  the 
Union  about  the  same  time. 

In  1830,  the  population  of  Arkansas  was 30,388 

In  1840,  "  "  97,574 

In  1830,  "  Michigan, 31,639 

In  1840,  "  "  212,267 

The  ratio  of  increase  of  white  inhabitants,  for  the  last  ten 
years,  has  been  in  Arkansas  as  200  per  cent. ;  in  Michigan,  574 
per  cent.  In  both  instances  the  increase  has  been  chiefly  owing 
to  emigration ;  but  the  ratio  shows  the  influence  of  slavery  in 
retarding  emigration.  Compare  also  Alabama  and  Illinois. 

In  1830,  the  free  population  of  Alabama,  was 191,975 

"  "  "  Illinois, 157,455 


Excess  in  favor  of  Alabama, 34,520 


In  1840,  free  population  of  Illinois, 476,183 

"  "  "  Alabama, 337,224 


Excess  in  favor  of  Illinois, 138,959 


NEW   MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  501 

We  surely  need  not  detain  you  with  further  details  on  this 
head,  to  convince  you  what  an  enormous  sacrifice  of  happiness 
and  prosperity  is  now  offered  on  the  altar  of  slavery.  But  of 
the  character  and  extent  of  this  sacrifice  you  have  as  yet  had 
only  a  partial  glimpse.  Let  us  proceed  to  examine, 

2.    THE    STATE    OF    EDUCATION    IN    THE    SLAVE    STATES. 

The  maxim  that  "knowledge  is  power,"  has  ever  more  or 
less  influenced  the  conduct  of  aristocracies.  Education  elevates 
the  inferior  classes  of  society,  teaches  them  their  rights,  and 
points  out  the  means  of  enforcing  them.  Of  course,  it  tends  to 
diminish  the  influence  of  wealth,  birth,  and  rank.  In  1671,  Sir 
William  Berkley,  then  Governor  of  Virginia,  in  his  answer  to 
the  inquiries  of  the  Committee  of  the  Colonies,  remarked,  "  I 
thank  God  that  there  are  no  free  schools  nor  printing  presses, 
and  I  hope  we  shall  not  have  them  these  hundred  years."  The 
spirit  of  Sir  William  seems  still  to  preside  in  the  councils  of  his 
own  Virginia,  and  to  actuate  those  of  the  other  slave  States. 

The  power  of  the  slave-holders,  as  we  have  already  shown 
you,  depends  on  the  acquiescence  of  the  major  part  of  the  white 
inhabitants  in  their  domination.  It  cannot  be,  therefore,  the 
interest  or  the  inclination  of  the  sagacious  and  reflecting  among 
them,  to  promote  the  intellectual  improvement  of  the  inferior 
class. 

In  the  free  States,  on  the  contrary,  where  there  is  no  caste 
answering  to  your  slave-holders  —  where  the  people  literally 
partake  in.  the  government,  mighty  efforts  are  made  for  general 
education;  and  in  most  instances,  elementary  instruction  is, 
through  the  public  liberality,  brought  within  the  reach  of  the 
children  of  the  poor.  Lamentable  experience  proves  that  such 
is  not  the  case  where  slave-holders  bear  rule. 

The  last  census  gives  us  the  number  of  white  persons  over 
twenty  years  of  age  in  each  State,  who  cannot  read  and  write. 
It  appears  that  these  persons  are  to  the  ivliole  white  population 
in  the  several  States  as  follows,  viz. : 
43 


502  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Connecticut, 1  to  every  568  Louisiana, >  1  to  every  S3  1-2 

Vermont, 1  "  472  Maryland,    1  "  27 

New  Hampshire, -I  "  310  Mississippi, 1  "  20 

Massachusetts,  •  •  •  1  "  166  Delaware, 1  "  18 

Maine, 1  "  108  S.  Carolina,  •  •  •  1  "  17 

Michigan, 1  "  97  Missouri,    1  «  16 

Rhode  Island, 1  "  67  Alabama, 1  "  15 

New  Jersey, 1  "  58  Kentucky, 1  «  131-2 

New  York, 1  "  56  Georgia,' 1  "  13 

Pennsylvania, 1  "  50  Virginia, 1  "  121-2 

Ohio, 1  "  43  Arkansas, 1  "  111-2 

Indiana, 1  "  18  Tennessee, 1  "  11 

Illinois, 1  "  17  N.  Carolina,  •  •  •  1  "  7* 

It  will  be  observed  by  looking  at  this  table,  that  Indiana  and 
Illinois  are  the  only  free  States,  which  in  point  of  education  are 
surpassed  by  any  of  the  slave  States :  for  this  disgraceful  cir 
cumstance  three  causes  may  be  assigned,  viz.,  their  recent  set 
tlement,  the  influx  of  foreigners,  and  emigration  from  the  slave 
States.  The  returns  from  New  York,  Rhode  Island,  New  Jer 
sey  and  Pennsylvania,  are  greatly  affected  by  the  vast  number 
of  foreigners,  congregated  in  their  cities,  and  employed  in  their 
manufactories  and  on  their  public  works.  In  Ohio,  also,  there 
is  a  large  foreign  population ;  and  it  is  well  known  that  com 
paratively  few  emigrants  from  Europe  seek  a  residence  in  the 
slave  States,  where  there  is  little  or  no  employment  to  invite  them. 
But  what  a  commentary  on  slavery  and  slave-holders  is  afforded 
by  the  gross  ignorance  prevailing  in  the  old  States  of  South 
Carolina,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina  !  But  let  us  proceed. 
The  census  gives  a  return  of  "  scholars  at  public  charge." 

Of  these,  there  are  in  the  free  States, 432,173 

"  "  slave  States, 35,580 

Ohio  alone  has  51,812  such  scholars,  —  more  than  are  to  be 
found  in  the  13  slave  States  !  Her  neighbor  Kentucky  has 
429  ! !  Let  us  compare  in  this  particular  the  largest  and  the 
smallest  State  in  the  Union. 

Virginia  has  scholars  at  public  charge 9,791 

Rhode  Island 10,91 2f 

*  This  summary  from  the  return  of  the  census,  is  copied  from  the  Rich 
mond  (Va.)  Compiler. 

f  See  American  Almanac  for  1842,  page  226. 


NEW   MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  503 

But  we  have  some  official  confessions,  which  give  a  still  more 
deplorable  account  of  southern  ignorance.  In  1837,  Governor 
Clarke,  in  his  message  to  the  Kentucky  Legislature,  remarked, 
"  By  the  computation  of  those  most  familiar  with  the  subject, 

ONE  THIRD  OF  THE  ADULT  POPULATION  OF  THE  STATE  ARE 
UNABLE  TO  WRITE  THEIR  NAMES." 

Governor  Campbell  reported  to  the  Virginia  Legislature,  that 
from  the  returns  of  98  clerks,  it  appeared  that  of  4,614  applica 
tions  for  marriage  licenses  in  1837,  no  less  than  1,047  were  made 
by  men  unable  to  write. 

These  details  will  enable  you  to  estimate  the  impudence  of  the 
following  plea  in  behalf  of  slavery  : 

"  It  is  by  the  existence  of  slavery,  exempting  so  large  a  portion  of 
our  citizens  from  the  necessity  of  bodily  labor,  that  we  have  leisure 
for  intellectual  pursuits,  and  the  means  of  attaining  a  liberal  education." 
Chancellor  Harper,  of  South  Carolina,  on  Slavery.  Southern  Literary 
Messenger,  Oct.  1838. 

Whatever  may  be  the  leisure  enjoyed  by  the  slave-holders, 
they  are  careful  not  to  afford  the  means  of  literary  improvement 
to  their  fellow-citizens  who  are  too  poor  to  possess  slaves,  and 
who  are,  by  their  very  ignorance,  rendered  more  fit  instruments 
for  doing  the  will,  and  guarding  the  human  property  of  the 
wealthier  class, 

3.    INDUSTRY   AND    ENTERPRISE. 

In  a  community  so  unenlightened  as  that  of  the  slave  States, 
it  is  a  matter  of  course  that  the  arts  and  sciences  must  languish, 
and  the  industry  and  enterprise  of  the  country  be  oppressed  by 
a  general  torpor.  Hence  multitudes  will  be  without  regular  and 
profitable  employment,  and  be  condemned  to  poverty  and  num 
berless  privations.  The  very  advertisements  in  the  newspapers 
show  that,  for  a  vast  proportion  of  the  comforts  and  conveniences 
of  life,  they  are  dependent  on  northern  manufactures  and  me 
chanics.  Slavery  has  rendered  labor  disgraceful ;  and  where 
this  is  the  case,  industry  is  necessarily  discouraged.  -The  great 
staple  of  the  South  is  cotton ;  and  we  have  no  desire  to  under- 


504  JAY'S  WORKS. 

value  its  importance.  It  is,  however,  worthy  of  remark,  that 
its  cultivation  affords  a  livelihood  to  only  a  small  proportion  of 
the  free  inhabitants ;  and  scarcely  to  any  of  those  we  are  now 
addressing.  Cotton  is  the  product  of  slave  labor,  and  its  profits 
at  home  are  confined  almost  exclusively  to  the  slave-holders. 
Yet  on  account  of  this  article,  we  hear  frequent  vaunts  of  the 
agricultural  riches  of  the  South.  With  the  exception  of  cotton, 
it  is  difficult  to  distinguish  your  agricultural  products  arising  from 
slave,  and  from  free  labor.  But  admitting,  what  we  know  is 
not  the  fact,  that  all  the  other  productions  of  the  soil  are  raised 
exclusively  by  free  labor,  we  learn  from  the  census,  that  the 
agricultural  products  of  the  North  exceed  those  of  the  South, 
cotton  excepted,  $226,219,714.  Here  then  we  have  an  appall 
ing  proof  of  the  paralyzing  influence  of  slavery  on  the  ind'ustry 
of  the  whites. 

In  every  community  a  large  portion  of  the  inhabitants  are 
debarred  from  drawing  their  maintenance- directly  from  the  cul 
tivation  of  the  earth.  Other  and  lucrative  employments  are 
reserved  for  them.  If  the  slave-holders  chiefly  engross  the  soil, 
let  us  see  how  you  are  compensated  by  the  encouragement  af 
forded  to  mechanical  skill  and  industry. 

In  1839,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  reported  to  Congress, 
that  the  tonnage  of  vessels  built  in  the  United  States  was 
120,988 ;  built  in  the  slave  States  and  Territories,  23, GOO,  or 
less  than  one-fifth  of  the  whole  !  But  the  difference  is  still 
more  striking,  when  we  take  into  consideration  the  comparative 
value  of  .the  shipping  built  in  the  two  regions  : 

In  the  free  States  the  value  is $6,311,805 

In  the  slave  States,   704,291* 

It  would  be  tedious  and  unprofitable  to  compare  the  results  of 
the  different  branches  of  manufacture  carried  on  at  the  North 
and  at  the  South.  It  is  sufficient  to  state  that,  according  to  the 
census,  the  value  of  the  manufactures 

In  the  free  States  is $334,139,690 

In  the  slave  States 83,935,742 

*  See  American  Almanac  for  1843,  page  153, 


NEW   MEXICO   AND    CALIFORNIA. 


505 


Having  already  compared  Ohio  and  Kentucky  in  reference  to 
population  and  education,  we  will  pursue  the  comparison  as  to 
agricultural  and  mechanical  industry.  On  account  of  contiguity, 
and  similarity  of  extent,  soil  and  climate,  no  two  States  can 
perhaps  be  so  aptly  contrasted  for  the  purpose  of  illustrating  the 
influence  of  slavery.  It  should  also  be  borne  in  mind  that 
Kentucky  can  scarcely  be  called  a  cotton  State,  having  in  1840 
raised  only  607,456  pounds  of  that  article.  Hence  the  deficiency 
of  agriculture  and  other  products  in  Kentucky  arises,  not  from 
a  peculiar  species  of  cultivation,  but  solely  from  the  withering 
effects  of  slavery. 

Ohio.  Kentucky. 

Wool,  ................  3,685,315  Ibs.  ...............  1,786,842 

Wheat,  .............  16,571,661  bushels  ............  5,803,152 

Hay,  ................  1,022,037  tons  .................  88,306 

Fulling  Mills,  ..............  205  .........................  5 

Printing-offices,  .............  159  ........................  34 

Tanneries,  .................  862  .......................  387 

Commercial  houses  1  ro  r 

in  foreign  trade,    ( 
Value  of  machinery  ?         ito-K-oi 

manufactured,    *{  •  ••*875,7«1 


In  one  species  of  manufacture  the  South  apparently  excels 
the  North,  but  unquestionably  it  is  in  appearance  only.  Of 
9,657  distilleries  in  the  United  States,  no  less  than  7,665  were 
found  in  the  slave  States  and  Territories  ;  but  for  want  of  skill 
and  capital,  these  yield  1,992  gallons  less  than  the  other. 

Where  there  is  so  much  ignorance  and  idleness,  we  may  well 
suppose  that  the  inventive  faculties  will  be  but  little  exercised  ; 
and  accordingly  we  find  that  of  the  545  patents  granted  for  new 
inventions  in  1846,  only  80  were  received  by  the  citizens  of  the 
slave  States.  We  have  thus  offered  to  our  readers  the  testi 
mony  of  figures,  as  to  the  different  state  of  society  under  free 
dom  and  slavery  ;  suffer  us  now  to  present  you  pictures  of  the 
two  regions,  drawn  not  by  abolitionists,  but  by  southern  artists, 
in  unguarded  hours.  Mr.  Clowney,  of  South  Carolina,  thus 
portrayed  his  native  State,  in  the  ardor  of  debate  on  the  floor 
of  Congress: 

43* 


506 

"  Look  at  South  Carolina  now,  with  her  houses  deserted  and  falling 
to  decay ;  her  once  fruitful  fields  worn  out  and  abandoned  for  want  of 
timely  improvement  or  skilful  cultivation  ;  and  her  thousands  of  acres 
of  inexhaustible  lands,  still  promising  an  abundant  harvest  to  the  in 
dustrious  husbandman,  lying  idle  and  neglected.  In  the  interior  of  the 
State  where  I  was  born,  and  where  I  now  live,  although  a  country  pos 
sessing  all  the  advantages  of  soil,  climate,  and  health,  abounding  in 
arable  land,  unreclaimed  from  the  first  rude  state  of  nature,  there  can 
now  be  found  many  neighborhoods-  where  the  population  is  too  sparse 
to  support  a  common  elementary  school  for  children.  Such  is  the  de 
plorable  condition  of  one  of  the  oldest  members  of  this  Union,  that 
dates  back  its  settlement  more  than  a  century  and  a  half,  while  other 
States,  born  as  it  were  but  yesterday,  already  surpass  what  Carolina  is 
or  ever  has  been,  in  the  happiest  and  proudest  day  of  her  prosperity." 

This  gentleman  chose  to  attribute  the  decline  of  South  Caro 
lina  to  the  tariff,  rather  than  to  the  obvious  cause,  that  one-half 
of  the  PEOPLE  of  South  Carolina  are  poor,  ignorant,  degraded 
SLAVES,  and  the  other  half  suffering  in  all  their  faculties  and 
energies,  from  a  moral  pestilence  which  they  insanely  regard  as 
a  blessing  and  not  a  curse.  Surely  it  is  not  owing  to  the  tariff, 
that  this  ancient  member  of  the  Union  has  20,615  white  citizens 
over  twenty  years  of  age  who  do  not  know  their  letters ;  while 
Maine,  with  double  her  population,  has  only  3,241. 

Now  look  upon  a  very  different  picture.  Mr.  Preston,  of  South 
Carolina,  not  long  since  delivered  a  speech  at  Columbia  in  ref 
erence  to  a  proposed  railroad.  In  this  speech,  in  order  to  stim 
ulate  the  efforts  of  the  friends  of  the  road,  he  indulged  in  the 
following  strain : 

"  No  southern  man  can  journey  (as  he  had  lately  done)  through  the 
Northern  States,  arid  witness  the  prosperity,  the  industry,  the  public 
spirit  which  they  exhibit  —  the  sedulous  cultivation  of  all  those  arts 
by  which  life  is  rendered  comfortable  and  respectable  —  without  feel 
ings  of  deep  sadness  and  shame  as  he  remembers  his  own  neglected  and 
desolate  home.  There,  no  dwelling  is  to  be  seen  abandoned  —  not  a 
farm  uncultivated.  Every  person  and  every  thing  performs  a  part 
towards  the  grand  result ;  and  the  whole  land  is  covered  with  fertile 
fields,  with  manufactories,  and  canals,  and  railroads,  and  edifices,  and 
towns,  and  cities.  We  of  the  South  are  mistaken  in  the  character  of 
these  people,  when  we  think  of  them  only  as  peddlers  in  horn  flints  and 
bark  nutmegs.  Their  energy  and  enterprise  are  directed  to  all  objects 
great  and  small  within  their  reach.  The  number  of  railroads  and  other 
modes  of  expeditious  intercommunication  knit  the  whole  country  into 
a  closely  compacted  mass,  through  which  the  productions  of  commerce 
and  of  the  press,  the  comforts  of  life,  and  the  means  of  knowledge,  are 


NEW   MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  507 

universally  diffused ;  while  the  close  intercourse  of  travel  and  of  busi 
ness  makes  all  neighbors,  and  promotes  a  common  interest  and  a  com 
mon  sympathy.  How  different  the  condition  of  these  things  at  the 
South !  Here  the  face  of  the  country  wears  the  aspect  of  premature 
old  age  and  decay.  No  IMPROVEMENT  is  SEEN  GOING  ON,  nothing  is 
done  for  posterity.  No  man  thinks  of  anything  beyond  the  present 
moment." 

Yet  tins  same  Mr.  Preston,  thus  sensitively  alive  to  the  supe 
rior  happiness  and  prosperity  of  the  free  States,  declared  in  the 
United  States  Senate, 

"  Let  an  abolitionist  come  within  the  borders  of  South  Carolina,  if 
we  can  catch  we  will  try  him,  and  notwithstanding  all  the  interference 
of  all  the  governments  of  the  earth,  including  the  Federal  Govern 
ment,  we  will  HANG  him."  * 

In  other  words,  the  slave-holders,  rather  than  part  with  their 
slaves,  are  ready  to  murder,  with  all  the  formalities  of  law, 
the  very  men  who  are  laboring  to  confer  on  them  the  envied 
blessings  of  the  North. 


4.       FEELINGS    OF    THE    SLAVE-HOLDERS    TOWARDS    THE 
LABORING    CLASSES. 

Whenever  the  great  mass  of  the  laboring  population  of  a 
country  are  reduced  to  beasts  of  burden,  and  toil  under  the  lash, 
"  bodily  labor,"  as  Chancellor  Harper  expresses  it,  must  be  dis 
reputable,  from  the  mere  influence  of  association.  Hence  it  is 
that  white  laborers  at  the  South  are  styled  "mean  whites."  At 
the  North,  on  the  contrary,  labor  is  regarded  as  the  proper  and 
commendable  means  of  acquiring  wealth ;  and  our  most  influ 
ential  men  would  in  no  degree  suffer  in  public  estimation,  for 
holding  the  plough,  or  even  repairing  the  highways.  Hence  no 
poor  man  is  deterred  from  seeking  a  livelihood  by  honest  labor 
from  a  dread  of  personal  degradation.  The  different  light  in 
which  labor  is  viewed  at  the  North  and  the  South  is  one  cause 
of  the  depression  of  industry  in  the  latter. 

*  We  are  well  aware  that  Mr.  Preston  has  denied,  what  no  one  asserted, 
that  he  had  said  an  abolitionist,  if  he  came  into  South  Carolina,  would  be  ex 
ecuted  by  Lynch  law.  He  used  the  words  we  have  quoted.  (See  "New  York 
Journal  of  Commerce,"  Jan.  6th,  1838.) 


508  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Another  cause  is  the  ever-wakeful  jealousy  of  the  aristocracy. 
They  fear  the  PEOPLE  ;  they  are  alarmed  at  the  very  idea  of 
power  and  influence  being  possessed  by  any  portion  of  the  com 
munity  not  directly  interested  in  slave  property.  Visions  of 
emancipation,  of  agrarianism,  and  of  popular  resistance  to  their 
authority,  are  ever  floating  in  their  distempered  and  excited  im 
aginations.  They  know  their  own  weakness,  and  are  afraid  you 
should  know  it  also.  Henee  it  is  their  policy  to  keep  down  the 
"  mean  whites."  Hence  their  philippics  against  the  lower  classes. 
Hence  their  constant  comparison  of  the  laborers  of  the  North, 
with  their  own  slaves  ;  and  hence,  in  no  small  degree,  the  absence 
among  them  of  those  institutions  which  confer  upon  the  poor 
that  knowledge  which  is  power.  Do  you  deem  these  assertions 
uncharitable  ?  Listen  to  their  own  declarations  : 

"  We  believe  the  servitude  which  prevails  in  the  South  far  prefer 
able  to  that  of  the  North,  or  in  Europe.  Slavery  will  exist  in  all  com 
munities.  There  is  a  class  which  may  be  nominally  free,  but  they  will 
be  virtually  slaves."  Mississippian,  July  6th,  1838. 

"  Those  who  depend  on  their  daily  labor  for  their  daily  subsistence 
can  never  enter  into  political  affairs ;  they  never  do,  never  will,  never 
can."  B.  W.  Leigh  in  Virginia  Convention,  1829. 

"All  society  settles  down  into  a  classification  of  capitalists  and  labor 
ers.  The  former  will  own  the  latter,  either  collectively  through  the 
government,  or  individually  in  a  state  of  domestic  servitude,  as  exists 
in  the  Southern  States  of  this  confederacy.  If  LABORERS  ever  obtain 
the  political  power  of  a  country,  it  is  in  fact  in  a  state  of  REVOLUTION. 
The  capitalists  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  have  precisely  the 
same  interest  in  the  labor  of  the  country,  that  the  capitalists  of  England 
have  in  their  labor.  Hence  it  is  that  they  must  have  a  strong  federal 
government  (!)  to  control  the  labor  of  the  nation.  But  is  precisely  the 
reverse  "vyith  us.  We  have  already  not  only  a  right  to  the  proceeds 
of  our  laborers,  but  we  owx  a  class  of  laborers  themselves.  But  let 
me  say  to  gentlemen  who  represent  the  great  class  of  capitalists  in  the 
North  —  beware  that  you  do  not  drive  us  into  a  separate  system;  for 
if  you  do,  as  certain  as  the  decrees  of  Heaven,  you  will  be  compelled 
to  appeal  to  the  sword  to  maintain  yourselves  at  home.  It  may  not  come 
in  your  day ;  but  your  children's  children  will  be  covered  with  the 
blood  of  domestic  factions,  and  will  see  a  plundering  mob  contending  for 
power  and  conquest"  Mr.  Pickens,  of  South  Carolina,  in  Congress, 
2lst  Jan.,  1836. 

So  the  way  to  prevent  plundering  mobs,  is  to  enslave  the 
poor !  We  shall  see  presently,  how  far  this  expedient  has  been 
successful  in  preventing  murdering  mobs. 


NEW   MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  509 

"  In  the  very  nature  of  things  there  must  be  classes  of  persons  to 
discharge  all  the  different  offices  of  society,  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest.  Some  of  these  offices  are  regarded  as  degrading,  although  they 
must  and  will  be  performed.  Hence  those  manifest  forms  of  depen 
dent  servitude  which  produce  a  sense  of  superiority  in  the  masters  or 
employers,  and  of  inferiority  on  the  part  of  the  servants.  Where 
these  offices  are  performed  by  members  of  the  political  community^  a 
DANGEROUS  ELEMENT  is  obviously  introduced  into  the  body  politic. 
Hence  the  alarming  tendency  to  violate  the  rights  of  property  by 
agrarian  legislation,  which  is  beginning  to  be  manifest  in  the  older 
States,  where  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE  prevails  without  DOMESTIC 

SLAVERY. 

"  In  a  word,  the  institution  of  domestic  slavery  supersedes  the  neces 
sity  of  AN  ORDER  OF  NOBILITY,  AND  ALL  THE  OTHER  APPENDAGES 
OF  A  HEREDITARY  SYSTEM  OF  GOVERNMENT."  Governor  M'Duffie's 

Message  to  the  South  Carolina  Legislature,  1836. 

"  We  regard  SLAVERY  as  the  most  safe  and  stable  basis  for  free 
institutions  in  the  world.  It  is  impossible  with  us,  that  the  conflict  can 
take  place  between  labor  and  capital,  which  makes  it  so  difficult  to 
establish  and  maintain  free  institutions  in  all  wealthy  and  highly  civil 
ized  nations  where  such  institutions  do  not  exist.  Every  plantation  is 
a  little  community,  with  the  master  at  its  head,  who  concentrates  in 
himself  the  united  interests  of  capital  and  labor,  of  which  he  is  the  com 
mon  representative"  Mr.  Calhoun,  of  South  Carolina,  in  the  U.S.  Sen 
ate,  Jan.  10^,1840. 

"  We  of  the  South  have  cause  now,  and  shall  soon  have  greater,  to 
congratulate  ourselves  on  the  existence  of  a  population  among  us,  which 
excludes  the  POPULACE  which  in  effect  rules  some  of  our  northern 
neighbors,  and  is  rapidly  gaining  strength  wherever  slavery  does  not 
exist  —  a  populace  made  up  of  the  dregs  of  Europe,  and  the  most 
worthless  portion  of  the  native  population."  Richmond  Whig,  1837. 

"  Would  you  do  a  benefit  to  the  horse  or  the  ox  by  giving  him  a 
cultivated  understanding,  a  fine  feeling  ?  So  far  as  the  MERE  LABOR 
ER  has  the  pride,  the  knowledge,  or  the  aspiration  of  a  freeman,  he  is 
unfitted  for  his  situation.  If  there  are  sordid,  servile,  laborious  offices 
to  be  performed,  is  it  not  better  that  there  should  be  sordid,  servile, 
laborious  beings  to  perform  them  ? 

"  Odium  has  been  cast  upon  our  legislation,  on  account  of  its  forbid 
ding  the  elements  of  education  being  communicated  to  slaves.  But  in 
truth  what  injury  is  done  them  by  this  ?  He  who  works  during  the  day 
with  his  hands,  does  not  read  in  the  intervals  of  leisure  for  his 
amusement,  or  the  improvement  of  his  mind,  or  the  exception  is  so  very 
rare  as  scarcely  to  need  the  being  provided  for."  Chancellor  Harper 
of  South  Carolina.  Southern  Literary  Messenger, 

This  same  gentleman  delivered  an  oration  on  the  4th  of  July, 
1840,  reviewing  the  principles  of  the  two  great  political  parties, 
and  although  he  supported  Mr,  Van  Buren's  administration,  in 


510  JAY'S  WORKS. 

consideration  of  its   devotion  to  the  slave  interest,  lie  frankly 
inquires  : 

"  Is  there  anything  in  the  principles  and  opinions  of  the  great  DEM 
OCRATIC  RABBLE,  as  it  has  been  justly  called,  which  should  induce  us 
to  identify  ourselves  with  that  ?  Here  you  may  find  every  possible 
grade  and  hue  of  opinion  which  has  ever  existed  in  the  country.  Here 
you  may  find  loafer,  and  loco-foco,  and  agrarian,  and  all  the  rabble  of 
the  city  of  New  York,  the  most  corrupt  and  depraved  of  rabbles,  and 
which  controls,  in  a  great  degree,  the  city  itself,  and  through  that,  as 
being  the  commercial  metropolis,  exercises  much  influence  over  the 
State  at  large. 

"  What  are  the  essential  principles  of  democracy  as  distinguished 
from  republicanism.  ?  The  first  consists  in  the  dogma,  so  portentous  to 
us,  of  the  natural  equality  and  unalienable  right  to  liberty  of  every 
human  being.  Our  allies,  (!)  no  doubt,  are  willing  at  present  to  modify 
the  doctrine  in  our  favor.  But  the  spirit  of  democracy  at  large  makes 
no  such  exceptions,  nor  will  these  (our  allies,  the  northern  democrats) 
continue  to  make  it,  longer  than  necessity  or  interest  may  require. 
The  second  consists  in  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  majorities ; 
a  doctrine  not  less  false  and  slavish  and  absurd,  than  the  ancient  doc 
trine  of  the  divine  right  of  kings." 

Mr.  Robert  Wickliffe,  of  Kentucky,  in  a  speech  published  in 
the  Louisville  Advertiser,  in  opposition  to  those  who  were 
adverse  to  the  importation  of  slaves  from  the  States,  thus 
discourseth : 

"  Gentlemen  wanted  to  drive  out  the  black  population,  that  they  may 
obtain  WHITE  NEGROES  in  their  place.  WHITE  NEGROES  have  this 
advantage  over  black  negroes,  they  can  be  converted  into  voters  ;  and 
the  men  who  live  "upon  the  sweat  of  their  brow,  and  pay  them  but  a 
dependent  and  scanty  subsistence,  can,  if  able  to  keep  ten  thousand  of 
them  in  employment,  come  up  to  the  polls,  and  change  the  destiny  of 
the  country. 

"  How  improved  will  be  our  condition  when  we  have  such  white 
negroes  as  perform  the  servile  labors  of  Europe,  of  Old  England,  and 
he  would  add  now  of  New  England ;  when  our  body  servants  and  our 
cart  drivers  and  our  street  sweepers  are  white  negroes  instead  of  black. 
Where  will  be  the  independence,  the  proud  spirit,  and  the  chivalry  of 
Kentuckians  then  ?  " 

Had  the  gentleman  looked  across  the  river,  he  might  have 
found  an  answer  to  his  question,  in  the  wealth,  power,  intelli 
gence  and  happiness  of  Ohio. 

In  reading  the  foregoing  extracts,  it  is  amusing  to  observe 
how  adroitly  the  slave-holders  avoid  all  recognition  of  any  other 


NEW   MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  511 

classes  among  them  than  masters  and  slaves.  Who  would  sus 
pect  from  their  language,  that  they  were  themselves  a  small 
minority  of  the  white  inhabitants,  and  that  their  own  "  white 
negroes  "  could,  if  united  and  so  disposed,  outvote  them  at  the 
polls?  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  in  their' denunciations  of 
the  populace,  the  rabble,  those  who  work  with  their  hands,  they 
refer  not  to  complexion,  but  to  condition ;  not  to  slaves,  but  to 
the  poor  and  laborious  of  their  own  color. 

Slavery,  although  considered  by  Mr.  Calhoun  "  the  most 
stable  basis  of  free  institutions  in  the  world,"  has,  as  we  shall 
presently  show  you,  in  fact,  led  to  grosser  outrages  in  the  social 
compact,  to  more  alarming  violations  of  constitutional  liberty,  to 
more  bold  and  reckless  assaults  upon  "  free  institutions  "  than 
have  ever  been  even  attempted  by  the  much-dreaded  agrarianism 
of  the  North. 

5.    STATE    OF    RELIGION. 

The  deplorable  ignorance  and  want  of  industry  at  the  South, 
together  with  the.  disrepute  in  which  honest  industry  is  held, 
cannot  but  exercise,  in  connection  with  other  causes,  a  most 
unhappy  influence  on  the  morals  of  the  inhabitants.  There  are 
between  two  and  three  millions  of  slaves,  who  arc  kept  by  law 
in  brutal  ignorance,  and  who,  with  few  exceptions,  are  virtually 
heathens.* 

There  are  also  among  them  more  than  200,000  free  negroes, 
thus  described  by  Mr.  Clay  :  —  "  Contaminated  themselves,  they 
extend  their  vices  to  all  around  them."  f 

If  evil  communications  corrupt  good  manners,  the  intimate 
intercourse  of  the  whites  with  these  people  must  bo  depraving : 
nor  can  the  exercise  of  despotic  power  by  the  masters,  their 
wives  and  children,  be  otherwise  than  unfavorable  to  the  benev 
olent  affections. 

*  "  From  long-continued  and  close  observation,  we  believe  that  their  (the 
slaves')  moral  and  religious  condition  is  such  that  they  may  justly  be  con 
sidered  the  HEATHEX  of  this  Christian  country,  and  will  bear  comparison 
with  heathen  in  any  country  in  the  world.  The  negroes  are  destitute  of  the 
Gospel,  and  ever  will  be  under  the  present  state  of  things."  Report  published 
by  the  Synod  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  Dec.  3,  1833. 

f  Speech  before  the  American  Colonization  Society. 


512  JAY'S  WORKS. 

It  is  with  pain  we  are  compelled  to  add,  that  the  conduct  and 
avowed  sentiments  of  the  southern  clergy  in  relation  to  slavery, 
necessarily  exert  an  unhappy  influence.  Most  of  the  clergy  are 
themselves  slave-holders,  and  are  thus  personally  interested  in 
the  system,  and  are  consequently  bold  and  active  in  justifying  it 
from  Scripture,  representing  it  as  an  institution  enjoying  the 
divine  sanction.  An  English  author,  in  reference  to  these 
efforts  of  your  clergy  forcibly  remarks  : 

"  Whatever  may  have  been  the  unutterable  wickedness  of  slavery 
in  the  West  Indies,  there  it  never  was  baptized  in  the  Redeemer's  hal 
lowed  name,  and  its  corruptions  were  not  concealed  in  the  garb  of 
religion.  That  acme  of  piratical  turpitude  was  reserved  for  the  pro 
fessed  disciples  of  Jesus  in  America." 

And  well  has  John  Quincy  Adams  said, 

"  The  spirit  of  slavery  has  acquired  not  only  an  overruling  ascendency, 
but  it  has  become  at  once  intolerant,  prescriptive,  and  sophistical.  It 
has  crept  into  the  philosophical  chairs  of  the  schools.  Its  cloven  hoof 
has  ascended  the  pulpits  of  the  churches  —  professors  of  colleges  teach 
it  as  a  lesson  of  morals  —  ministers  of  the  Gospel  seek  and  profess  to 
find  sanctions  for  it  in  the  word  of  God." 

The  ministers  live  in  the  midst  of  slavery,  and  they  know  that 
the  system  on  which  they  bestow  their  benedictions,  is,  in  the 
language  of  Wilberforce,  "  a  system  of  the  grossest  injustice, 
of  the  most  heathenish  irreligion  and  immorality ;  of  the  most 
unprecedented  degradation  and  unrelenting  cruelty."  Surely, 
we  have  reason  to  fear  that  the  denunciation  of  Scripture  against 
false  prophets  of  old,  will  be  accomplished  against  the  southern 
clergy,  "  Because  they  ministered  unto  them  before  their  idols, 
and  caused  the  House  of  Israel  to  fall  into  iniquity,  therefore 
have  I  lifted  mine  hand  against  them,  saith  the  Lord  God,  and 
they  shall  bear  their  iniquity."  Ezek.  44:  12. 

Under  such  ministrations  it  cannot  be  expected  that  Christian 
zeal  and  benevolence  will  take  deep  root  and  bear  very  abundant 
fruit.  This  is  a  subject  on  which  few  statistics  can  be  obtained. 
We  have  no  means  of  ascertaining  the  number  of  churches  and 
ministers  throughout  the  United  States  of  the  various  denomina 
tions.  Some  opinion,  however,  may  be  formed  of  the  religious 


NEW   MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  513 

character  of  a  people,  by  their  efforts  for  the  moral  improvement 
of  the  community.  In  the  United  States  there  are  numerous 
voluntary  associations  for  religious  and  benevolent  purposes, 
receiving  large  contributions  and  exercising  a  wide  moral  influ 
ence.  Now,  of  all  the  large  benevolent  societies  professing  to 
promote  the  welfare  of  the  whole  country,  and  asking  and  re 
ceiving  contributions  from  all  parts  of  it,  we  recollect  but  one 
that  had  its  origin  in  the  slave-region,  and  the  business  of  which 
is  transacted  in  it,  and  that  is  the  AMERICAN  COLONIZATION 
SOCIETY.  Of  the  real  object  and  practical  tendency  of  this 
Society  it  is  unnecessary  to  speak  —  you  understand  them. 

In  the  Tenth  Report  of  the  American  Sunday  School  Union 
(p.  50)  is  a  table  showing  the  number  of  Sunday  School 
scholars  in  each  State  for  the  year  1834.  From  this  table  wt 
learn  that 

There  were  in  the  free  States, 504,835  scholars. 

"  "        slave     "        82,532         " 

The  single  State  of  New  York  had 161,768        « 

About  twice  as  many  as  in  the  thirteen  slave  States. 

And  is  it  possible  that  this  literary  and  religious  destitution, 
together  with  the  vicious  habits  of  the  colored  population,  should 
have  no  effect  on  the  moral  character  of  the  whites  ? 

We  entreat  your  patient  and  dispassionate  attention  to  the 
remarks  and  facts  we  are  about  to  submit  to  you  on  the  next 
subject  of  inquiry. 

G.     STATE    OF    MORALS. 

Christianity,  by  controlling  the  malignant  passions  of  our 
nature,  and  exciting  its  benevolent  affections,  gives  a  sacredness 
to  the  rights  of  others,  and  especially  does  it  guard  human  life. 
But  where  her  blessed  influence  is  withdrawn,  or  greatly  im 
paired,  the  passions  resume  their  sway,  and  violence  and  cruelty 
become  the  characteristics  of  every  community  in  which  the 
civil  authority  is  too  feeble  to  afford  protection. 

No  society  is  free  from  vices  and  crime,  and  we  well  know 
that  human  depravity  springs  from  another  source  than  slavery. 

44 


514  JAY'S  WORKS. 

It  will  not,  however,  be  denied  that  circumstances  and  institu 
tions  may  check  those  evil  propensities  to  which  we  are  all 
prone  ;  and  it  will,  we  presume,  be  admitted  that  in  forming  an 
opinion  of  the  moral  condition  and  advancement  of  any  com 
munity,  we  are  to  be  guided  in  our  judgment,  not  by  insulated 
facts,  but  by  the  tone  of  public  opinion.  Atrocities  occur  in 
the  bes£regulated  and  most  virtuous  States,  but  in  such  they 
excite  indignation  and  are  visited  with  punishment ;  while  in 
vicious  communities  they  are  treated  with  levity  and  impunity. 

In  a  country  where  suffrage  is  universal,  the  representatives 
will  but  reflect  the  general  character  of  their  'constituents.  If 
we  are  permitted  to  apply  this  rule  in  testing  the  moral  condition 
of  the  South,  the  result  will  not  be  favorable. 

In  noticing  the  public  conduct  of  public  men,  we  are  not 
sensible  of  violating  any  principle  of  courtesy  or  delicacy ;  we 
touch  not  their  private  character  or  their  private  acts  ;  we  refer 
to  their  language  and  sentiments,  merely  as  one  indication  of 
the  standard  of  morals  among  their  constituents,  not  as  conclusive 
proof  apart  from  other  evidence. 

On  the  15th  of  February,  1837,  E-.  M.  Whitney  was  arraigned 
before  the  House  of  Representatives  for  contempt  in  refusing  to 
attend  when  required  before  a  committee.  His  apology  was 
that  he  was  afraid  of  his  life,  and  he  called,  as  a  witness  in  his 
behalf,  one  of  the  committee,  Mr.  Fairfield,  since  Governor  of 
the  State  of  Maine.  It  appeared  that  in  the  committee,  Mr. 
Peyton,  of  Virginia,  had  put  some  interrogatory  to  Whitney, 
who  had  returned  a  written  answer  which  was  deemed  offensive. 
On  this,  as  Mr.  Fairfield  testified,  Peyton  addressed  the  Chair 
man  in  these  terms  :  "  Mr.  Chairman,  I  wish  you  to  inform  this 
witness,  that  he  is  not  to  insult  me  in  his  answers  :  if  he  does, 
God  damn  him  !  I  will  take  his  life  on  the  spot !  "  Whitney 
rose  and  said  he  claimed  the  protection  of  the  committee,  on 
which  Peyton  exclaimed,  "  God  damn  you,  you  shan't  speak, 
you  shan't  say  one  word  while  you  are  in  this  room  ;  if  you  do  I 
will  put  you  to  death ! "  Soon  after,  Peyton,  observing  that 
Whitney  was  looking  at  him,  cried  out,  "  Damn  him,  his  eyes 
are  on  me  —  God  damn  him,  he  is  looking  at  me  —  he  shan't 
do  it  —  damn  him,  he  shan't  look  at  me  !  " 


NEW   MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  515 

The  newspaper  reports  of  the  proceedings  of  Congress,  a  few 
ye&rs  since,  informed  us  that  Mr.  Daw  son,  a  member  from  Lou 
isiana,  went  up  to  Mr.  Arnold,  another  member,  and  said  to  him, 
"  If  you  attempt  to  speak,  or  rise  from  your  seat,  sir,  by  God 
I'll  cut  your  throat ! " 

In  a  debate  on  the  Florida  war,  Mr  Cooper  having  taken 
offence  at  Mr.  Giddings,  of  Ohio,  for  some  remarks  relative  to 
slavery,  said  in  his  reply,  "  If  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  will 
come  among  my  constituents  and  promulgate  his  doctrines  there, 
he  will  find  that  Lynch  law  will  be  inflicted,  and  that  the  gen 
tleman  will  reach  an  elevation  which  he  little  dreams  of." 

In  the  session  of  1841,  Mr.  Payne,  of  Alabama,  in  debate, 
alluding  to  the  abolitionists,  among  whom  he  insisted  the  Post 
master-General  ought  to  be  included,  declared  that  he  would 
proscribe  all  abolitionists,  he  "  would  put  the  brand  of  Cain  upon 
them  —  yes,  the  mark  of  HELL,  and  if  they  came  to  the  South 

lie  WOUld  HANG    THEM    LIKE    DOGS  !  " 

Mr.  Hammond,  of  South  Carolina,  at  an  earlier  period  thus 
expressed  himself  in  the  House  :  "  I  warn  the  abolitionists,  ig 
norant,  infatuated  barbarians  as  they  are,  that  if  chance  shall 
throw  any  of  them  into  our  hands,  they  may  expect  a  FELON'S 

DEATH  !  " 

In  1848,  Mr.  Hale,  a  senator  from  New  Hampshire,  intro 
duced  a  bill  for  the  protection  of  property  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  attempts  having  been  made  to  destroy  an  Anti-Sla 
very  press.  Mr.  Foote,  a  senator  from  Mississippi,  thus  ex 
pressed  himself  in  reply :  "  I  invite  him  (Mr.  H.)  to  the  State 
of  Mississippi,  and  will  tell  him  beforehand,  in  all  honesty,  that 
he  could  not  go  ten  miles  into  the  interior,  before  he  would 
grace  one  of  the  tallest  trees  of  the  forest,  with  a  rope  around 
his  neck,  with  the  approbation  of  every  virtuous  and  patriotic 
citizen,  and  that,  if  necessary,  I  SHOULD  MYSELF  ASSIST  IN  THE 
OPERATION." 

And  now,  do  these  honorable  gentleman,  with  all  their  profan 
ity  and  vulgarity,  breathing  out  threatenings  and  slaughter,  rep 
resent  the  feelings,  and  manners,  and  morals  of  the  slave-holding 
community  ?  "We  have  seen  no  evidence  that  they  have  lost  a 


516  JAY'S  WORKS. 

particle  of  popular  favor  in  consequence  of  their  ferocious 
violence.  Alas !  their  language  has  been  reechoed  again  and 
again  by  public  meetings  in  the  slave  States  ;  and  we  proceed 
to  lay  before  you  overwhelming  proof  that  in  the  expression  of 
their  murderous  feelings  towards  the  abolitionists,  they  have 
faithfully  represented  the  sentiments  of  their  constituents. 

7.    DISREGARD    FOR    HUMAN    LIFE. 

We  have  already  seen  that  one  of  the  blessings  which  the 
slave-holders  attribute  to  their  favorite  institution,  is  exemption 
from  popular  tumults,  and  from  encroachments  by  the  democracy 
upon  the  rights  of  property.  Their  argument  is,  that  political 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  poor  and  laboring  classes  is  always 
attended  with  danger,  and  that  this  danger  is  averted  when  these 
classes  are  kept  in  bondage.  With  these  gentlemen,  life  and 
liberty  seem  to  be  accounted  as  the  small  dust  of  the  balance, 
when  weighed  against  slavery  and  plantations ;  hence,  to  pre 
serve  the  latter  they  are  ever  ready  to  sacrifice  the  former,  in 
utter  defiance  of  laws  and  constitutions. 

We  have  already  noticed  the  murderous  proposition  in  rela 
tion  to  the  abolitionists,  made  by  Governor  McDuffie  to  the 
South  Carolina  Legislature  in  1835  :  "  It  is  my  deliberate  opin 
ion  that  the  laws  of  every  community  should  punish  this  species 
of  interference,  by  DEATH  without  benefit  of  clergy."  In  an 
address  to  a  legislative  assembly,  Governor  McDume  refrained 
from  the  indecency  of  recommending  illegal  murder;  but  we 
will  soon  find  that  the  public  sentiment  of  the  South  by  no 
means  requires  that  abolitionists  shall  be  put  to  death  with  legal 
formalities ;  but  on  the  contrary,  the  slave-holders  are  ready,  in 
the  language  of  Mr.  Payne,  to  "  hang  them  like  dogs." 

We  hazard  little  in  the  assertion,  that  in  no  civilized  Christian 
community  on  earth  is  human  life  less  protected  by  law,  or  more 
frequently  taken  with  impunity,  than  in  the  slave  States  of  the 
Federal  Union.  We  wish  to  impress  upon  you  the  danger  and 
corruption  to  which  you  and  your  children  are  exposed  from  the 
institution,  which,  as  we  have  shown  you,  exists  by  your  suffer- 


NEW   MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  517 

ance»  But  you  have  been  taught  to  respect  this  institution ; 
and  hence  it  becomes  necessary  to  enter  into  details,  however 
painful,  and  to  present  you  with  authorities  which  you  cannot 
reject.  What  we  have  just  said  of  the  insecurity  of  human 
life,  will  probably  be  deemed  by  you  and  others  as  abolition 
slander.  Listen,  then,  to  slave-holders  themselves  : 

"  We  long  to  see  the  day,"  said  tlie  Governor  of  Kentucky  in  his 
message  to  the  Legislature,  1837,  "  when  the  law  will  assert  its  majesty, 
and  stop  the  wanton  destruction  of  life  which  almost  daily  occurs  with 
in  the  jurisdiction  of  this  commonwealth.  MEN  SLAUGHTER  EACH 

OTHER    WITH    ALMOST    PERFECT    IMPUNITY.      A   Species  of  common 

law  has  grown  up  in  Kentucky,  which,  were  it  written  down,  would, 
in  all  civilized  countries,  cause  her  to  be  re-christened,  in  derision, 

THE  LAND  OF  BLOOD." 

The  present  Bishop  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Kentucky,*  a 
few  years  since,  published  an  article  on  the  murders  in  that 
State.  lie  states  that  some  with  whom  he  had  conversed  esti 
mated  them  at  eighty  per  annum ;  but  that  he  had  rated  them 
at  about  thirty ;  and  that  he  had  ascertained  that  for  the  last 
three  years,  there  had  not  been  "  an  instance  of  capital  pun 
ishment  in  any  white  offender." 

"  It  is  believed,"  says  he,  "  there  are  more  homicides  on  an  average 
of  two  years  in  any  of  our  more  populous  counties,  than  in  the  whole  of 
several  of  our  States  of  equal,  or  nearly  equal,  population  to  Kentucky ' 

Governor  McVay,  of  Alabama,  in  his  message  to  the  Legis 
lature,  November  15,  1837,  thus  speaks : 

"  We  hear  of  homicides  in  different  parts  of  the  State  continually, 
and  yet  have  few  convictions,  and  still  fewer  executions  !  Why  do 
we  hear  of  stabbings  and  shootings  almost  daily  in  some  part  or 
other  of  our  State  ?  " 

"  DEATH  BY  VIOLENCE. — The  moral  atmosphere  in  our  State  ap 
pears  to  be  in  a  deleterious  and  sanguinary  condition.  Almost  every 
exchange  paper  which  reaches  us,  contains  some  inhuman  and  revolt 
ing  case  of  murder,  or  death  by  violence.  Not  less  than  FIFTEEN 
deaths  by  violence  have  occurred,  to  our  certain  knowledge,  within  the 
past  three  months."  Grand  Gulf  Miss.  Advertiser,  27th  June,  1837. 

"  CONTEMPT  OF  HUMAN  LIFE. — In  view  of  the  crimes  which  are 
daily  committed,  we  are  led  to  inquire  whether  it  is  owing  to  the 

*  It  is  believed  this  gentleman  is  not  a  slave-holder. 
44* 


518  JAY'S  WORKS. 

inefficiency  of  our  laws,  or  to  the  manner  in  which  these  laws  arc 
administered,   that   this   FRIGHTFUL    DELUGE  OF   HUMAN    BLOOD 

FLOWS    THROUGH  OUR    STREETS    AND  OUR    PLACES  OF  PUBLIC   RE 
SORT."     New  Orleans  Bee,  23d  May,  1838. 

At  the  opening  of  the  Criminal  Court  in  New  Orleans,  No-* 
vember  4th,  1837,  Judge  Lansuque  delivered  an  address,  in 
which,  speaking  of  the  prevalence  of  violence,  he  used  the  fol 
lowing  language  : 

"  As  a  Louisiana  parent,  I  reflect  with  terror,  that  our  beloved  chil 
dren,  reared  to  become  one  day  honorable  and  useful  citizens,  may  be 
the  victims  of  these  votaries  of  vice  and  licentiousness.  Without  some 
powerful  and  certain  remedy,  our  streets  will  become  BUTCHERIES, 

OVERFLOWING  WITH  THE  BLOOD  OF  OUR  CITIZENS  ! " 

While  the  slave-holders  are  terrified  at  the  idea  of  the  "  great 
democratic  rabble,"  and  rejoice  in  human  bondage  as  supersed 
ing  the  necessity  of  "  an  order  of  nobility,  and  all  the  appen 
dages  of  a  hereditary  government,"  they  have  established  a  reign 
of  terror,  as  insurrectionary  and  as  sanguinary  in  principle,  as 
that  created  by  the  sans  culottes  of  the  French  Revolution.  We 
indulge  in  no  idle  declamation,  but  speak  the  words  of  truth 
and  soberness. 

A  public  meeting,  convened  in  the  cliurch  (!  !)  in  the  town 
of  Clinton,  Mississippi,  5th  of  September,  1835 — 

"  Resolved,  that  it  is  our  decided  opinion,  that  any  individual  who 
dares  to  circulate,  with  a  view  to  effectuate  the  designs  of  the  aboli 
tionists,  any  of  the  incendiary  tracts  or  newspapers  now  in  the  course 
of  transmission  to  this  country,  is  justly  worthy,  in  the  sight  of  God 
and  man,  of  immediate  death ;  and  we  doubt  not  that  such  would  be 
the  punishment  of  any  such  offender,  in  any  part  of  the  State  of 
Mississippi  where  he  may  be  found." 

It  would  be  tedious  to  copy  the  numerous  resolutions  of 
similar  import,  passed  by  public  meetings  in  almost  every  slave 
State.  It  is  well  known  that  the  promoters  of  those  lawless 
and  sanguinary  proceedings,  did  not  belong  to  the  "  rabble  " — 
they  were  not  "  mean  whites,"  but  rich,  influential  slave-hold 
ers.  A  meeting  was  held  in  1835  at  Williamsburgh,  Virginia, 
which  was  harangued  by  no  less  a  personage  than  JOHN  TYLER, 
once  Governor  of  the  State,  and  since  President  of  the  United 


NEW  MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  5l9 

States :  under  this  gentleman's  auspices,  and  after  his  address, 
the  meeting  resolved — - 

"  That  we  regard  the  printing  and  circulating  within  our  limits,  of 
incendiary  publications,  tending  to  excite  our  slaves  to  insurrection 
and  rebellion,  as  treasonable  acts  of  the  most  alarming  character,  and 
that  when  we  detect  offenders  in  the  act,  we  will  inflict  upon  them 
condign  punishment,  without  resorting  to  any  other  tribunal." 

The  profligacy  of  this  resolution  needs  no  comment.  Mr. 
Tyler  well  knew  that  the  laws  of  Virginia,  and  every  other 
State,  were  abundantly  sufficient  to  punish  crime :  but  he  and 
his  fellow-lynchcrs  wished  to  deter  the  people  from  receiving 
and  reading  anything  adverse  to  slavery ;  and  hence,  with  their 
usual  audacity,  they  determined  to  usurp  the  prerogative  of 
courts  and  juries,  and  throw  down  all  the  bulwarks  which  the 
law  has  erected  for  the  protection  of  innocence. 

Newspapers  are  regarded  as  the  mirrors  of  public  opinion. 
Let  us  see  what  opinions  are  reflected  in  those  of  the  South. 

The  Charleston  Courier,  llth  August,  1835,  declared  that 
"  the  gallows  and  the  stake  "  awaited  the  abolitionists  who  should 
dare  to  "  appear  in  person  among  us." 

"  The  cry  of  the  whole  South  should  be  death,  instant  death  to  the 
abolitionist,  wherever  he  is  caught."  Augusta  (G'eo.)  Chronicle. 

"  Let  us  declare  through  the  public  journals  of  our  country,  that 
the  question  of  slavery  is  not  and  shall  not  be  open  to  discussion ;  that 
the  system  is  too  deep-rooted  among  us,  and  must  remain  forever ;  that 
the  very  moment  any  private  individual  attempts  to  lecture  us  upon 
its  evils  and  immorality,  and  the  necessity  of  putting  means  in  opera 
tion  to  secure  us  from  them,  in  the  same  moment  his  tongue  shall  be 
cut  out  and  cast  upon  the  dunghill."  Columbia  (S.  C.)  Telescope. 

This,  it  will  be  noticed,  is  a  threat  addressed,  not  to  the 
northern  abolitionists,  but  to  the  great  majority  of  the  white  in 
habitants  of  the  South ;  and  they  are  warned  not  to  express  an 
opinion  offensive  to  the  aristocracy. 

"  AWFUL  BUT  JUST  PUNISHMENT. — We  learn,  by  the  arrival  of 
the  steamboat  Kentucky  last  evening  from  Richmond,  that  Robinson, 
the  Englishman  mentioned  in  the  Beacon  of  Saturday,  as  being  in  the 
vicinity  of  Lynchburg,  was  taken  about  fifteen  miles  from  that  town, 
and  HANGED  on  the  spot,  for  exciting  the  slaves  to  insurrection." 
Norfolk  (Fa.)  Beacon,  Wth  August,  1835. 


520  JAY'S  WORKS. 

"  We  can  assure  the  Bostonians,  one  and  all,  who  have  embarked 
in  the  nefarious  scheme  of  abolishing  slavery  at  the  South,  that  lashes 
will  hereafter  be  spared  the  backs  of  their  emissaries.  Let  them  send 
out  their  men  to  Louisiana  ;  they  will  never  return  to  tell  their  suffer 
ings,  but  they  shall  expiate  the  crime  of  interfering  with  our  domestic 
institutions,  by  being  BURNED  AT  THE  STAKE."  New  Orleans  True 
American. 

"  Abolition  editors  in  slave  States  will  not  dare  to  avow  their  opin 
ions.  It  would  be  instant  DEATH  to  them."  Missouri  Argus. 

Here,  again,  is  a  threat  directed  against  any  person,  who  may 
happen  to  have  the  command  of  types  and  printer's  ink. 

Now,  we  ask  what  must  be  the  state  of  society,  where  the 
public  journals  thus  justify  and  stimulate  the  public  thirst  for 
blood  ?  The  very  idea  of  trial  is  scouted,  and  the  mob,  or  rather 
the  slave-holders  themselves,  are  acknowledged  to  be  the  arbiters 
of  life  and  death.  The  question  we  put  to  you  as  to  the  state  of 
society,  lias  been  already  answered  by  the  official  declarations  of 
the  Governors  of  Kentucky  and  Alabama,  and  of  Judge  Lan- 
suque,  of  New  Orleans  ;  as  well  as  by  the  extracts  we  have  given 
you  from  some  of  the  southern  journals,  relative  to  the  frequency 
of  murders  among  them.  We  could  farther  answer  it,  by  filling 
sheets  with  accounts  of  fearful  atrocities.  But  we  purposely  re 
frain  from  referring  to  assassinations  and  private  crimes ;  for 
such,  as  already  remarked,  occur  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  in 
every  community,  and  do  not  necessarily  form  a  test  of  the 
standard  of  morals.  But  we  ask  your  attention  to  a  test  which 
cannot  be  questioned.  We  will  present  for  your  consideration  a 
series  of  atrocities,  perpetrated,  not  by  individuals  in  secret,  but 
in  open  day  by  the  slave-holding  populace. 

We  have  seen  that  two  of  the  southern  papers  we  have  quoted, 
threaten  abolitionists  with  THE  STAKE.  This  awful  and  horrible 
punishment  has  been  banished,  by  the  progress  of  civilization, 
from  the  whole  of  Christendom,  with  the  single  exception  of  the 
American  slave  States.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say,  that 
even  in  them,  it  is  unknown  to  the  laws,  although  familiar  to 
the  people.  It  is  also  deserving  of  remark,  that  the  two  jour 
nals  which  have  made  this  atrocious  threat  were  published,  not 
among  the  rude  borderers  of  our  frontier  settlements,  but  in  the 


NEW   MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  521 

populous  cities  of  Charleston  and  New  Orleans,  the  very  centres 
of  southern  refinement. 

"  TUSCALOOSA  (Ala.),  June  20,  1827. — The  negro  [one  who  had 
killed  a  Mr.  M'Ncilly]  was  taken  before  a  justice  of  the  peace,  who 
waived  hu  ^authority,  perhaps  through  fear,  as  a  crowd  of  persons  had 
collected,  to  the  number  of  seventy  or  eighty,  near  Mr.  People's  [the 
justice's]  house.  He  acted  as  president  of  the  mob,  and  put  the  vote, 
when  it  was  decided  that  he  should  be  immediately  executed  by  being 
burned  to  death.  The  sable  culprit  was  led  to  a  tree,  and  tied  to  it, 
and  a  large  quantity  of  pine  knots  collected  and  placed  around  him, 
and  the  fatal  torch  applied  to  the  pile,  even  against  the  remonstrances 
of  several  gentlemen  who  were  present,  and  the  miserable  being  was 
in  a  short  time  burned  to  ashes.  This  is  the  second  negro  who  has 
been  thus  put  to  death,  without  judge  or  jury,  in  this  country." 

On  the  28th  of  April,  1836,  a  free  negro  was  arrested  in  St. 
Louis  (Missouri)  and  committed  to  jail  on  a  charge  of  murder. 
A  mob  assembled  and  demanded  him  of  the  jailer,  who  surren 
dered  him.  The  negro  was  then  chained  to  a  tree  a  short  dis 
tance  from  the  Court  House,  and  burned  to  death. 

"  After  the  flames  had  surrounded  their  prey,  and  when  his  clothes 
where  in  a  blaze  all  over  him,  his  eyes  burnt  out  of  his  head,  and  his 
mouth  seemingly  parched  to  a  cinder,  some  one  in  the  crowd,  more 
compassionate  than  the  rest,  proposed  to  put  an  end  to  his  misery  by 
shooting  him,  when  it  was  replied  that  it  would  be  of  no  use,  since  he 
was  already  out  of  his  pain.  '  No,'  said  the  wretch,  '  I  am  not,  I  am 
suffering  as  much  as  ever ;  shoot  me,  shoot  me.'  '  No,  no,'  said  one 
of  the  fiends  who  was  standing  about  the  sacrifice  they  were  roasting, 
'  he  shall  not  be  shot,  I  would  sooner  slacken  the  fire,  if  that  would 
increase  his  misery ; '  and  the  man  who  said  this  was,  we  under 
stand,  an  officer  of  justice"  Alton  Telegraph. 

"  We  have  been  informed  that  the  slave  William,  who  murdered  his 
master  (Huskey)  some  weeks  since,  was  taken  by  a  party  a  few  days 
since  from  the  sheriff  of  Hot  Spring,  and  burned  alive  I  yes,  tied  up  to 
the  limb  of  a  tree  and  a  fire  built  under  him,  and  consumed  in  a  slow 
lingering  torture."  Arkansas  Gazette,  Oct.  29,  1836. 

The  Natchez  Free  Trader,  16th  June,  1842,  gives  a  horrible 
account  of  the  execution  of  the  negro,  Joseph,  on  the  5th  of  that 
month  for  murder. 

"  The  body,"  says  that  paper,  "  was  taken  and  chained  to  a  tree  im 
mediately  on  the  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  on  what  is  called  Union 
Point.  The  torches  were  lighted  and  placed  in  the  pile.  He  watched 
unmoved  the  curling  flame  as  it  grew,  until  it  began  to  entwine  itself 
around  and  feed  upon  his  body ;  then  he  sent  forth  cries  of  agony 


522  JAY'S  WORKS. 

painful  to  the  ear,  begging  some  one  to  blow  his  brains  out ;  at  the 
same  time  surging  witn  almost  superhuman  strength,  until  the  staple 
with  which  the  chain  was  fastened  to  the  tree,  not  being  well  secured, 
drew  out,  and  he  leaped  from  the  burning  pile.  At  that  moment  the 
sharp  ring  of  several  rifles  was  heard,  and  the  body  of  the  negro  fell  a 
corpse  to  the  ground.  He  was  picked  up  by  two  or  three,  and  again 
thrown  into  the  fire  and  consumed." 

"ANOTHER  NEGRO  BURNED.  — We  learn  from  the  clerk  of  the 
Highlander,  that  while  wooding  a  short  distance  below  the  mouth  of 
the  Red  River,  they  were  invited  to  stop  a  short  time  and  see  another 
negro  burned."  N.  0.  Bulletin. 

Thus  we  see  that  burning  negroes  alive  is  treated  as  a  specta 
cle,  and  strangers  are  invited  to  witness  it.  The  victim  of  this 
exhibition  was  the  negro  Enoch,  said  to  have  been  an  accom 
plice  of  Joseph,  and  was  burned  a  few  days  after  the  other. 

"We  have  thus  given  you  no  less  than  six  instances  of  human 
beings  publicly  burned  alive  in  four  slave  States,  and  in  each 
case  with  entire  impunity  to  the  miscreants  engaged  in  the  hor 
rible  murder.  But  these  were  cases  which  happened  to  be 
reported  in  the  newspapers,  and  with  which  we  happened  to 
become  acquainted.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  these  exe 
cutions  are  not  of  rare  occurrence,  and  that  many  of  them,  either 
through  indifference  or  policy,  are  not  noticed  in  the  southern 
papers. 

A  recent  traveller  remarks : 

"  Just  before  I  reached  Mobile,  two  men  were  burned  alive  there  in 
a  slow  fire  in  the  open  air,  in  the  presence  of  the  gentlemen  of  the 
city.  No  word  was  breathed  of  the  transaction  in  the  newspapers." 
MartineaiCs  Society  in  America,  Vol.  I,  p.  373. 

But  the  murderous  spirit  deplored  by  the  Governors  of  Ken 
tucky  and  Alabama,  and  the  "  frightful  deluge  of  human  blood  " 
complained  of  by  the  New  Orleans  editor,  had  no  reference  to 
the  murder  of  negroes.  Men  who  can  enjoy  the  sight  of  ne 
groes  writhing  in  flames,  and  are  permitted  by  the  civil  authori 
ties  to  indulge  in  such  exhibitions,  will  not  be  very  scrupulous 
in  taking  the  lives  of  each  other.  It  is  well  known  how  inces 
santly  the  work  of  human  slaughter  is  going  on  among  them ; 
and  no  reader  of  their  public  journals  can  be  ignorant  of  the 
frequent  occurrence  of  their  deadly  street  fights.  But,  for  the 


NEW   MEXICO   AND    CALIFORNIA.  523 

reason  already  given,  we  meddle  not  with  these.  We  charge 
the  slave-holding  community,  as  such,  with  sanctioning  murder, 
and  protecting  the  perpetrators,  and  setting  the  laws  at  defi 
ance.  This  we  know  is  a  grievous  charge,  and  most  grievous 
the  proof  of  it.  But  mistake  not  our  meaning.  God  forbid  we 
should  deny  that  many  of  the  community  to  which  we  refer, 
utterly  abhor  the  atrocities  we  are  about  to  detail.  We  speak  of 
the  murderous  feelings  of  the  slave-holding  community,  just  as 
we  speak  of  the  politics,  the  manners,  and  the  morals  of  any  other 
community,  freely  acknowledging  that  there  are  numerous  and 
honorable  exceptions.  For  the  general  truth  of  our  assertion, 
we  appeal  to  the  authorities  and  the  facts  we  have  already  laid 
before  you,  and  to  those  we  are  about  to  offer. 

You  have  already  seen  that  the  pro-slavery  press  has  recom 
mended  the  murder  of  such  northern  abolitionists  as  may  be 
caught  in  the  South ;  we  now  ask  your  attention  to  the  efforts 
made  by  the  slave-holders  to  get  prominent  abolitionists  into 
their  power. 

In  1831,  a  citizen  of  Massachusetts  established  a  newspaper 
at  Boston,  called  the  Liberator,  and  devoted  to  the  cause  of 
negro  emancipation.  The  undertaking  was  perfectly  legal,  and 
he  himself,  having  never  been  in  Georgia,  had  of  course  vio 
lated  none  of  her  laws.  The  Legislature,  however,  forthwith 
passed  a  law,  offering  a  bribe  of  $5000  to  any  person  who 
would  arrest  and  bring  to  trial  and  conviction,  in  Georgia,  the 
editor  and  publisher  of  the  Boston  paper.  This  most  atrocious 
law  was  "approved"  on  the  26th  of  December,  1831,  by 
WILLIAM  LUMPKIN,  the  Governor.  The  object  of  the  bribe 
could  have  been  no  other  than  the  abduction  and  murder 
of  the  conductor  of  the  paper — his  trial  and  conviction  under 
Georgia  laws  being  a  mere  pretence  :  the  Georgia  courts  have 
as  much  jurisdiction  over  the  press  in  Paris  as  in  Boston.  A 
Lynch  court  was  the  only  one  that  could  have  taken  cognizance 
of  the  offence,  and  its  proceedings  would  undoubtedly  have 
been  both  summary  and  sanguinary. 

The  horrible  example  thus  set  by  the  Georgia  Legislature 
was  not  without  its  followers. 


524 

At  a  meeting  of  slave-holders  at  Sterling,  Sept.  4,  1835,  it- 
was  formally  recommended  to  the  Governor  to  issue  a  procla 
mation,  offering  the  $5000  appropriated  by  the  Act  of  1831,  as 
a  reward  for  the  apprehension  of  either  of  ten  persons  named  in 
the  resolution,  citizens  of  New  York  and  Massachusetts,  and 
one  a  subject  of  Great  Britain  ;  not  one  of  whom  it  was  even 
pretended  had  ever  set  his  foot  on  the  soil  of  Georgia. 

The  Milledgeville  (Ga.)  Federal  Union,  of  Feb.  1,  1836, 
contained  an  offer  of  $10,000  for  kidnapping  A.  A.  Phelps,  a 
clergyman  residing  in  the  city  of  New  York. 

The  Committee  of  Vigilance  of  the  Parish  of  East  Feliciana 
offered  in  the  Louisiana  Journal  of  15th  of  Oct.  1835,  $50,000 
to  any  person  who  would  deliver  into  their  hands  Arthur 
Tappan,  a  New  York  merchant. 

At  a  public  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Mount  Meigs,  Alabama, 
13th  of  August,  1836,  the  Honorable  (!)  Bedford  Ginress  in 
the  chair,  a  reward  of  $50,000  was  offered  for  the  apprehension 
of  Arthur  Tappan,  or  La  Roy  Sunderland,  a  clergyman  of  the 
Methodist  Church  residing  in  New  York. 

Let  us  now  witness  the  practical  operation  of  that  murderous 
spirit  which  dictated  the  foregoing  villanous  bribes.  We  have 
already  seen  the  conduct  of  the  slave-holding  community  to 
negro  offenders  ;  we  are  now  to  notice  its  tender  mercies  to  men 
of  its  own  color. 

In  1835,  there  was  a  real  or  affected  apprehension  of  a  ser 
vile  insurrection  in  the  State  of  Mississippi.  The  slave-holders, 
as  usual  on  such  occasions,  were  exceedingly  frightened,  and 
were  exceedingly  cruel.  A  pamphlet  was  afterwards  pub 
lished,  entitled  "Proceedings  of  the  Citizens  of  Madison  County, 
Miss.)  at  Livingston,  in  July,  1835,  in  relation  to  the  trial  and 
punishment  of  several  individuals  implicated  in  a  contemplated 
insurrection  in  this  State.  Prepared  ~by  Thomas  Shuckelford, 
Esquire.  Printed  at  Jackson,  Miss."  This  pamphlet,  then,  is 
the  southern  account  of  the  affair ;  and  while  it  is  more  minute 
in  its  details  than  the  narratives  published  in  the  newspapers 
at  the  time,  we  are  not  aware  that  it  contradicts  them.  It  may 
be  regarded  as  a  sort  of  semi-official  report,  put  forth  by  the 


NEW  MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  525 

slave-holders,  and  published  under  their  implied  sanction.  It 
appears,  from  this  account,  that  in  consequence  of  "  rumors " 
that  the  slaves  meditated  an  insurrection  —  that  a  colored  girl 
had  been  heard  to  say  that  "  she  was  tired  of  waiting  011  the 
white  folks  —  wanted  to  be  her  own  mistress  for  the  balance  of 
her  days,  and  clean  up  her  own  house,  &c., "  a  meeting  was 
held  at  which  resolutions  were  signed,  organizing  a  committee, 
and  authorizing  them  "  to  bring  before  them  any  person  or  per 
sons,  either  white  or  black,  and  try  in  a  summary  manner  any 
person  brought  before  them,  ivith  power  to  hang  or  whip,  being 
always  governed  by  the  laws  of  the  land,  so  far  only  as  they  shall 
be  applicable  to  the  case  in  question  ;  otherwise  to  act  as  in  their 
discretion  shall  seem  best  for  the  benefit  of  the  country  and  the 
protection  of  its  citizens." 

This  was  certainly  a  most  novel  mode  of  erecting  and  com 
missioning  a  court  of  judicature,  with  the  power  of  life  and 
death,  expressly  authorized  to  act  independently  of  "  the  laws 
of  the  land.  " 

The  constitution  of  the  State  of  Mississippi,  which  no  doubt 
many  of  the  honorable  judges  of  the  court  had  on  other  occa 
sions  taken  an  oath  to  support,  contains  the  following  clause  : — 

"  No  person  shall  be  accused,  arrested  or  detained,  except  in  cases 
ascertained  by  law,  and  according  to  the  forms  which  the  same  has 
prescribed ;  and  no  person  shall  be  punished,  but  in  virtue  of  a  law 
established  and  promulgated  prior  to  the  offence,  and  legally  applied." 

Previous  to  the  organization  of  this  court,  FIVE  slaves  had 
already  been  HUNG  by  the  people.  The  court,  or  rather,  as  it 
was  modestly  called  by  the  meeting  who  erected  it,  "  the  com 
mittee,"  proceeded  to  try  Dr.  Joshua  Cotton,  of  New  England. 
It  was  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  committee  that  he  had 
been  detected  in  many  low  tricks  —  that  he  was  deficient  in 
feeling  and  affection  for  his  second  wife* —  that  he  had  traded 
with  negroes  —  that  he  had  asked  a  negro  boy  whether  the 
slaves  were  whipped  much,  how  he  would  like  to  be  free,  &c. 
It  is  stated  that  Cotton  made  a  confession  that  he  had  been  aim 
ing  to  bring  about  a  conspiracy.  The  committee  condemned 

him  to  BE    HANGED    IN    AN    HOUR   AFTER    SENTENCE. 
45 


526  JAY'S  WORKS. 

William  Saunders,  a  native  of  Tennessee,  was  next  tried. 
He  was  convicted  "  of  being  often  out  at  night,  and  giving  no 
satisfactory  explanation  for  so  doing  " —  of  equivocal  conduct  — • 
of  being  intimate  with  Cotton,  &c.  Whereupon,  by  a  unani 
mous  vote,  he  was  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to  be  HUNG.  He 
was  executed  with  Cotton  on  the  4th  of  July. 

Albe  Dean,  of  Connecticut,  was  next  tried.  He  was  con 
victed  of  being  a  lazy,  indolent  man,  having  veiy  little  preten 
sions  to  honesty  —  of  "  pretending  to  make  a  living  by  construct 
ing  washing  machines" — of  "often  coming  to  the  owners  of 
runaways,  to  intercede  with  the  masters  to  save  them  from  a 
whipping."  He  was  sentenced  to  be  HUNG,  and  was  executed. 

A.  L.  Donavan,  of  Kentucky,  was  then  put  on  his  trial.  He 
was  suspected  of  having  traded  with  the  negroes — of  being 
found  in  their  cabins,  and  enjoying  himself  in  their  society.  It 
was  proved  that  "  at  one  time  he  actually  undertook  to  release 
a  negro  who  was  tied,  which  negro  afterwards  implicated  him/'* 
and  that  he  once  told  an  overseer  "  it  was  cruel  work  to  be 
whipping  the  poor  negroes  as  he  was  obliged  to  do."  The  com 
mittee  were  satisfied,  from  the  evidence  before  them,  that  Dona- 
van  was  an  emissary  of  those  deluded  fanatics  of  the  North, 
the  abolitionists.  He  was  condemned  to  be  HUNG,  and  suffered 
accordingly. 

Huel  Blake  was  next  tried,  condemned  and  HUNG.  "  He 
protested  his  innocence  to  the  last,  and  said  his  life  was  sworn 
away." 

Here  we  have  a  record  of  no  less  than  TEN  men,  five  black 
and  five  white,  probably  all  innocent  of  the  crime  alleged 
against  them,  deliberately  and  publicly  put  to  death  by  the 
slave-holders,  without  the  shadow  of  legal  authority. 

The  Maysville  (Ken.)  Gazette,  in  announcing  Donavan's 
murder,  says,  "  He  formerly  belonged  to  Maysville,  and  was  a 
much  respected  citizen." 

A  letter  from  Donavan  to  his  wife,  written  just  before  his 
execution,  and  published  in  the  Maysville  paper,  says  : 

"  I  am  doomed  to  die  to-morrow  at  twelve  o'clock,  on  a  charge  of 
having  been  concerned  in  a  negro  insurrection,  in  this  _State,  among 


NEW   MEXICO   AND    CALIFORNIA.  527 

many  other  whites.     We  are  not  tried  by  a  regular  jury,  but  by  a  com 
mittee  of  PLANTERS  appointed  for  the  purpose,  who  have  not  time  to 

wait  on  a  person  for  evidence Now  I  must  close  by  saying, 

before  my  Maker  and  Judge,  that  I  go  into  his  presence  as  innocent  of 

this  charge  as  when  I  was  born I  must  bid  you  a  final  farewell, 

hoping  mat  the  God  of  the  widow  and  the  fatherless  will  give  you 
grace  to  bear  this  most  awful  sentence." 

And  now,  did  these  butcheries  by  the  Mississippi  PLANTERS 
excite  the  indignation  of  the  slave-holding  communities  ?  Re 
ceive  the  answer  from  an  editor  of  the  Ancient  Dominion, 
replying  to  the  comments  of  a  northern  newspaper. 

"  The  Journal  may  depend  upon  it  that  the  Cottons  and  the  Saun- 
derses,  men  confessing  themselves  guilty  of  inciting  and  plotting  insur 
rection,  will  be  HANGED  UP  wherever  caught,  and  that  without  the 
formality  of  a  legal  trial.  Northern  or  southern,  such  will  be  their  inev 
itable  doom.  For  our  part,  WE  APPLAUD  the  transaction,  and  none  in 
our  opinion  can  condemn  it,  who  have  not  a  secret  sympathy  with  the 
Garrison  sect.  If  northern  sympathy  and  effort  are  to  be  cooled  and 
extinguished  by  such  cases,  it  proves  but  this,  that  the  South  ought  to 
feel  little  confidence  in  the  professions  it  receives  from  that  quarter." 
Richmond  Whig. 

About  the  time  of  the  massacre  in  Clinton  county,  another 
awful  tragedy  was  performed  at  Vicksburg  in  the  same  State. 
FIVE  men,  said  to  be  gamblers,  were  HANGED  by  the  mob  on 
the  5th  July,  in  open  day. 

The  Louisiana  Advertiser,  of  13th  July,  says: 

"  These  unfortunate  men  claimed  to  the  last,  the  privilege  of  Amer 
ican  citizens,  the  trial  by  jury,  and  professed  themselves  willing  to  sub 
mit  to  anything  their  country  would  legally  inflict  upon  them ;  but  we 
are  sorry  to  say,  their  petition  was  in  vain.  The  black  musicians  were 
ordered  to  strike  up,  and  the  voices  of  the  supplicants  were  drowned 
by  the  fife  and  drum.  Mr.  Riddle,  the  Cashier  of  the  Planters'  Bank, 
ordered  them  to  play  Yankee  Doodle.  The  unhappy  sufferers  fre 
quently  implored  a  drink  of  water,  but  they  were  refused." 

The  sympathy  of  the  Louisiana  editor,  so  different  from  his 
brother  of  Richmond,  was  probably  owing  to  the  fact,  that  the 
murdered  men  were  accused  of  being  gamblers,  and  not  aboli 
tionists. 

When  we  said  these  five  men  were  hung  by  the  mob,  we  did 
not  mean  what  Chancellor  Harper  calls  the  "  democratic  rabble." 


528  JAY'S  WORKS. 

It  seems  the  cashier  of  a  bank,  a  man  to  whom  the  slave-holders 
entrust  the  custody  of  their  money,  officiated  on  the  occasion  as 
Master  of  Ceremonies. 

A  few  days  after  the  murders  at  Vicksburg,  a  negro  named 
Vincent  was  sentenced  by  a  Lynch  club  at  Clinton,  Miss.,  to 
receive  three  hundred  lashes,  for  an  alleged  participation  in 
an  intended  insurrection.  We  copy  from  the  Clinton  Gazette : 

"  On  Wednesday  evening  Vincent  was  carried  out  to  receive  his 
stripes,  but  the  ASSEMBLED  MULTITUDE  were  in  favor  of  hanging  him. 
A  vote  was  accordingly  fairly  taken,  and  the  hanging  party  had  it  by 
an  overwhelming  majority,  as  the  politicians  say.  He  was  remanded 
to  prison.  .  On  the  day  of  execution  a  still  larger  crowd  was  assembled, 
and  fearing  that  the  public  sentiment  might  have  changed  in  regard 
to  his  fate,  after  everything  favorable  to  the  culprit  was  alleged  which 
could  be  said,  the  vote  was  taken,  and  his  death  was  demanded  by  the 
people.  In  pursuance  of  this  sentiment,  so  unequivocally  expressed, 
he  was  led  to  a  black  jack,  and  suspended  to  one  of  its  brandies.  WE 

APPROVE  ENTIRELY  OF  THE  PROCEEDINGS;  THE  PEOPLE  HATE 
ACTED  PROPERLY." 

Thus  SIXTEEN  human  beings  were  deliberately  and  publicly 
murdered,  by  assembled  crowds,  in  different  parts  of  the  State 
of  Mississippi,  within  little  more  than  ONE  WEEK,  in  open  de 
fiance  of  the  laws  and  constitution  of  the  State. 

And  now,  we  ask,  what  notice  did  the  chief  magistrate  of 
Mississippi,  sworn  to  support  her  constitution,  sworn  to  execute 
her  laws  —  what  notice,  we  ask,  did  he  take  of  these  horrible 
massacres?  Why,  at  the  next  session  of  the  Legislature, 
Governor  Lynch,  addressing  them  in  reference  to  abolition,  re 
marked  : 

"  Mississippi  has  given  a  practical  demonstration  of  feeling  on  this 
exciting  subject,  that  may  serve  as  an  impressive  admonition  to  offend 
ers  ;  and  however  we  may  regret  the  occasion,  we  are  constrained  to 
admit  that  necessity  will  sometimes  prompt  a  summary  mode  of  trial 
and  punishment  unknown  to  the  law." 

The  iniquity  and  utter  falsehood  of  this  declaration,  as  applied 
to  the  transactions  alluded  to,  are  palpable.  If  the  victims  were 
innocent,  no  necessity  required  their  murder.  If  guilty,  no  ne 
cessity  required  their  execution  contrary  to  law.  There  was  no 
difficulty  in  securing  their  persons  and  bringing  them  to  trial. 


NEW   MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  529 

In  1841,  an  unsuccessful  attempt  was  made  in  Kentucky  to 
murder  a  man.  The  assailants  were  arrested  and  lodged  in  jail 
for  trial.  Their  fate  is  thus  related  in  a  letter  by  an  eye-witness, 
published  in  the  Cincinnati  Gazette : 

"Williamstown,  Ky.,  July  11,  1841. 

"The  unfortunate  men,  Lyman  Couch  and  Smith  May  the,  were 
taken  out  of  jail  on  Saturday  about  1 2  o'clock,  and  taken  to  the  ground 
where  they  committed  the  horrid  deed  on  Utterback,  and  at  4  o'clock 
were  HUNG  on  the  tree  where  Utterback  lay  when  his  throat  was  cut. 
The  jail  was  opened  by  force.  I  suppose  there  were  from  FOUR  TO 
SEVEN  HUNDRED  people  engaged  in  it.  Resistance  was  all  in  vain. 
There  were  three  speeches  made  to  the  mob,  but  all  in  vain.  They  al 
lowed  the  prisoners  the  privilege  of  clergy  for  about  five  hours,  and  then 
observed  that  they  had  made  their  peace  with  God,  and  they  deserved  to 
die.  The  mob  was  conducted  with  coolness  and  order,  more  so  than  I 
ever  heard  of  on  such  occasions.  But  such  a  day  was  never  witnessed 
in  our  little  village,  and  I  hope  never  will  be  again." 

The  fact  that  this  atrocity  was  perpetrated  in  "our  little  vil 
lage,"  and  by  a  rural  population,  affords  an  emphatic  and  horrible 
indication  of  the  state  of  morals  in  one  of  the  oldest  and  best 
of  our  slave  States. 

Would  that  we  could  here  close  these  fearful  narratives  ;  but 
another  and  more  recent  instance  of  that  ferocious  lawlessness 
which  slavery  has  engendered,  must  still  be  added.  The  follow 
ing  facts  are  gathered  from  the  Norfolk  (  Va.)  Beacon,  of  19th 
Nov.,  1842. 

George  W.  Lore  was,  in  April,  1842,  convicted  in  Alabama, 
on  circumstantial  evidence,  of  the  crime  of  murder.  The  Su 
preme  Court  granted  a  new  trial,  remarking,  as  is  stated  in  another 
paper,  that  the  testimony  on  which  he  was  convicted  was  "  unfit 
to  be  received  by  any  court  of  justice  recognized  among  civilized 
nations."  In  the  mean  time,  Lore  escaped  from  jail,  and  was 
afterwards  arrested.  He  was  seized  by  a  mob,  who  put  it  to 
vote,  whether  he  should  be  surrendered  to  the  civil  authority  or 
be  hung.  Of  132  votes,  130  were  for  immediate  death  ;  and  he 
was  accordingly  HUNG  at  Spring  Hill,  Bourbon  County,  on  the 
4th  of  November. 

And  now,  what  think  you  of  Mr.  Calhoun's  "  most  safe  and 
stable  basis  for  free  institutions  ?  "     Do  you  number  TRIAL   BY 
45* 


530  JAY'S  WORKS. 

JURY  among  free  institutions  ?  You  see  on  what  basis  it  rests 
—  the  will  of  the  slave-holders.  "  In  New  York,"  we  are  told  by 
high  southern  authority,  "you  may  find  loafer,  and  loco-foco, 
and  agrarian,  and  the  most  corrupt  and  depraved  of  rabbles." 
But  we  ask  you,  where  would  your  life  be  most  secure  if  charged 
with  crime, — amid  the  rabble  of  New  York,  or  that  of  Clinton, 
Vicksburg,  and  Williamstown  ?  We  think  we  have  fully  proved 
our  assertion  respecting  the  disregard  of  human  life  felt  by  the 
slave-holding  community ;  and  of  course  their  contempt  for  those 
legal  barriers  which  are  erected  for  its  protection.  Let  us  now 
inquire  more  particularly  how  far  slavery  is  indeed  a  stable 
basis  on  which  free  institutions  may  securely  rest. 

8.      DISREGARD    FOR    CONSTITUTIONAL    OBLIGATIONS. 

Governor  McDuffie,  in  his  speech  of  1834  to  the  South  Caro 
lina  Legislature,  characterized  the  Federal  Constitution  as  "  that 
miserable  mockery  of  blurred,  and  obliterated,  and  tattered 
parchment."  Judging  from  their  conduct,  the  slave-holders, 
while  fully  concurring  with  the  Governor  in  his  contempt  for 
the  national  parchment,  have  quite  as  little  respect  for  their  own 
State  constitution  and  laws. 

The  "  tattered  parchment "  of  which  Mr.  McDuffie  speaks,  de~ 
.clares  that  "  the  citizens  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  tlie 
privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  several  States." — Art. 
IV,  Sec.  2.  Notwithstanding  this  express  provision,  there  are 
in  almost  every  slave  State,  if  not  in  all,  laws  for  seizing,  impris 
oning,  and  then  selling  as  slaves  for  life,  citizens  having  black 
or  yellow  complexions,  entering  within  their  borders.  This  is 
done  under  pretence  that  the  individuals  are  supposed  to  be 
fugitives  from  bondage.  When  circumstances  forbid  such  a  sup 
position,  other  devices  are  adopted  for  nullifying  the  provision 
we  have  quoted.  By  a  law  of  Louisiana,  every  free  negro  or 
mulatto,  arriving  on  board  any  vessel  as  a  mariner  or  passenger, 
shall  be  immediately  imprisoned  till  the  departure  of  the  vessel, 
when  he  is  to  be  compelled  to  depart  in  her.  If  such  free  negro 
or  mulatto  returns  to  the  State,  he  is  to  be  imprisoned  for  FIVE 
years. 


NEW   MEXICO   AND    CALIFORNIA.  531 

The  jailer  of  Savannah  some  time  since  reported  TEN  STEW 
ARDS  as  being  in  his  custody.  These  were  free  citizens  of  other 
States,  deprived  of  their  liberty  solely  on  account  of  the  com 
plexion  their  Maker  had  given  them,  and  in  direct  violation  of 
the  express  language  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  If  any  free 
negro  or  mulatto  enters  the  State  of  Mississippi,  for  any  cause, 
however  urgent,  any  white  citizen  may  cause  him  to  be  punished 
by  the  sheriff  with  thirty-nine  lashes,  and  if  he  does  not  imme 
diately  thereafter  leave  the  State,  he  is  SOLD  AS  A  SLAVE. 

In  Maryland,  a  free  negro  or  mulatto,  coming  into  the  State, 
is  fined  $20,  and  if  he  returns  he  is  fined  $500,  and  on  default 
of  payment,  is  sold  AS  A  SLAVE.  Truly  indeed  have  the  slave 
holders  rendered  the  Constitution  a  blurred,  obliterated,  and  tat 
tered  parchment.  But  whenever  this  same  Constitution  can,  by 
the  grossest  perversion,  be  made  instrumental  in  upholding  and 
perpetuating  human  bondage,  then  it  acquires,  for  the  time,  a 
marvellous  sanctity  in  their  eyes,  and  they  are  seized  with  a 
holy  indignation  at  the  very  suspicion  of  its  profanation. 

The  readiness  with  which  southern  Governors  prefer  the  most 
false  and  audacious  claims,  under  color  of  constitutional  author 
ity,  exhibits  a  state  of  society  in  wrhich  truth  and  honor  are  but 
little  respected. 

In  1833,  seventeen  slaves  effected  their  escape  from  Virginia 
in  a  boat,  and  finally  reached  New  York.  To  recover  these 
slaves  as  such,  a  judicial  investigation  in  New  York  would  be 
necessary,  and  the  various  claimants  would  be  required  to  prove 
their  property.  A  more  convenient  mode  presented  itself.  The 
Governor  of  Virginia  made  a  requisition  on  the  Executive  of 
New  York  for  them  as  fugitive  felons,  and  on  this  requisition,  a 
warrant  was  issued  for  their  arrest  and  surrender.  The  pre 
tended  felony  was  stealing  the  boat  in  which  they  had  escaped. 

In  1839,  a  slave  escaped  from  Virginia  on  board  of  a  vessel 
bound  to  New  York.  It  was  suspected,  but  without  a  particle  of 
proof,  that  some  of  the  crew  had  favored  his  escape ;  and  imme 
diately  the  master  made  oath  that  three  of  the  sailors,  naming 
them,  had  feloniously  STOLEN  the  slave ;  and  the  Governor,  well 
knowing  there  was  no  slave-market  in  New  York,  and  that  no 


532 

man  could  there  be  held  in  slavery,  had  the  hardihood  to  demand 
the  surrender  of  the  mariners  on  the  charge  of  grand  larceny  . 
and,  in  his  correspondence  with  the  Governor  of  New  York, 
declared  the  slave  was  worth  six  or  seven  hundred  dollars,  and 
remarked  that  stealing  was  "  recognized  as  a  CRIME  by  all  laws, 
human  and  divine." 

In  18-11,  a  female  slave,  belonging  to  a  man  named  Flournoy, 
in  Georgia,  was  discovered  on  board  a  vessel  about  to  sail  for 
New  York,  and  was  recovered  by  her  master.  It  was  afterwards 
supposed  from  the  woman's  story,  that  she  had  been  induced  by 
one  of  the  passengers  to  attempt  her  escape.  Whereupon  Flour 
noy  made  oath  that  John  Greemnan  did  feloniously  STEAL  his 
slave.  But  the  Governor  of  New  York  had  already  refused  to 
surrender  citizens  of  his  State  on  a  charge  so  palpably  false  and 
absurd.  It  was  therefore  deemed  necessary  to  trump  up  a  very 
different  charge  against  the  accused ;  and  hence  Flournoy  made 
a  second  affidavit,  that  John  Greenman  did  feloniously  steal  and 
take  away  three  blankets,  two  shaivls,  three  frocks,  one  pair  of  ear 
rings,  and  two  finger-rings,  the  property  of  deponent.  Armed  with 
these  affidavits,  the  Governor  demanded  the  surrender  of  Green 
man  under  the  Constitution.  Not  an  intimation  was  given  by 
His  Excellency,  when  he  made  the  demand,  of  the  real  facts  of 
the  case,  which,  in  a  subsequent  correspondence,  he  was  com 
pelled  to  admit.  It  turned  out  that  the  woman,  instead  of  being 
stolen,  went  voluntarily,  and  no  doubt  joyfully,  on  board  the 
vessel;  and  that  the  wearing  apparel,  &c.,  were  the  clothes  and 
ornaments  worn  by  her  ;  nor  was  there  a  pretence  that  Green 
man  had  ever  touched  them,  or  ever  had  them  in  his  possession. 

We  have  said  that  the  slave-holders  hold  their  own  laws  and 
constitutions  in  the  same  contempt  as  those  of  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment,  whenever  they  conflict  with  the  security  and  perma 
nency  of  slavery.  One  of  the  most  inestimable  of  constitutional 
privileges  is  TRIAL  BY  JURY  ;  and  this,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
trampled  under  foot  with  impunity,  at  the  mandate  of  the  slave 
holders.  Even  John  Tyler,  as  it  appears,  is  for  inflicting  sum 
mary  punishment  on  abolitionists,  by  a  Lynch  club,  "  without 
resorting  to  any  other  tribunal." 


NEW  MEXICO   AND    CALIFORNIA.  533 

We  now  proceed  to  inquire  how  far  they  respect  the  liberty 
of  speech  and  of  the  press. 

9.    LIBERTY    OF    SPEECH. 

The  whole  nation  witnessed  the  long  successful  efforts  of  the 
slave-holders  in  Congress,  by  their  various  gag  resolutions,  and 
through  the  aid  of  recreant  northern  politicians,  to  destroy  all 
freedom  of  debate  adverse  to  "  the  peculiar  institution."  They 
were  themselves  ready  to  dwell,  in  debate,  on  the  charms  of 
human  bondage  ;  but  when  a  member  took  the  other  side  of  the 
question,  then,  indeed,  he  was  out  of  order,  the  Constitution  was 
outraged,  and  the  Union  endangered.  We  all  know  the  violent 
threats  which  have  been  used,  to  intimidate  the  friends  of  human 
rights  from  expressing  their  sentiments  in  the  national  legislature. 

"  As  long,"  says  Governor  McDuffie  to  the  South  Carolina  Legisla 
ture,  "  as  long  as  the  halls  of  Congress  shall  be  open  to  the  discussion 
of  this  question,  we  can  have  neither  peace  nor  security." 

The  Charleston  Mercury  is,  on  this  subject,  very  high  author 
ity  ;  and  in  1837  its  editor  announced  that 

"  Public  opinion  in  the  South  would  now,  we  are  sure,  justify  an  imme 
diate  resort  to  FORCE  by  the  southern  delegation,  even  on  the  FLOOR  OF 
CONGRESS,  were  they  forthwith  to  SEIZE  AND  DRAG  FROM  THE  HALL 
any  man  who  dared  to  insult  them,  as  that  eccentric  old  showman,  John 
Quincy  Adams,  has  dared  to  do." 

When  so  much  malignity  is  manifested  against  the  freedom  of 
speech,  in  the  very  sanctuary  of  American  liberty,  it  is  not  to  be 
supposed  that  it  will  be  tolerated  in  the  house  of  bondage.  We 
have  already  quoted  a  southern  paper,  which  declares  that  the 
moment  "  any  private  individual  attempts  to  lecture  us  on  the 
evils  and  immorality  of  slavery,  that  very  moment  his  tongue 
shall  be  cut  out  and  cast  upon  the  dunghill." 

In  Marion  College,  Missouri,  there  appeared  some  symptoins 
of  anti-slavery  feeling  among  the  students.  A  Lynch  club 
assembled,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ely,  one  of  the  professors,  appeared 
before  them,  and  denounced  abolition,  and  submitted  a  series  of 
resolutions  passed  by  the  faculty,  and  among  them  the  following : 


534  JAY'S  WORKS. 

"  We  do  hereby  forbid  all  discussions  and  public  meetings  among 
the  students  upon  the  subject  of  domestic  slavery."  The  Lynch- 
ers  were  pacified,  and  neither  tore  down  the  college  nor  hung 
up  the  professors ;  but  before  separating  they  resolved  that  they 
would  oppose  the  elevation  to  office  of  any  man  entertaining  abo 
lition  sentiments,  and  would  withhold  their  countenance  and 
support  from  every  such  member  of  the  community.  Indeed, 
it  is  obvious  to  any  person  attentive  to  the  movements  of  the 
South,  that  the  slave-holders  dread  domestic  far  more  than 
foreign  interference  with  their  darling  system. 

10.      LIBERTY    OF    THE    PRESS. 

The  constitutions  of  all  the  slave  States  guarantee,  in  the  most 
solemn  and  explicit  terms,  the  liberty  of  the  press  ;  but  it  is 
well  understood  that  there  is  one  exception  to  its  otherwise  un 
bounded  license :  property  in  human  flesh  is  too  sacred  to  be 
assailed  by  the  press.  The  attributes  of  the  Deity  may  be 
discussed,  but  not  the  rights  of  the  master.  The  characters  of 
public,  and  even  of  private  men,  may  be  vilified  at  pleasure, 
provided  no  reproach  is  flung  upon  the  slave-holder.  Every 
abuse  in  Church  or  State  may  be  ferreted  out  and  exposed,  ex 
cept  the  cruelties  practised  upon  the  slaves,  unless  when  they 
happen  to  exceed  the  ordinary  standard  of  cruelty  established 
by  general  usage.  Every  measure  of  policy  may  be  advocated, 
except  that  of  free  labor ;  every  question  of  right  may  be  ex 
amined,  except  that  of  a  man  to  himself;  every  dogma  in 
theology  may  be  propagated,  except  that  of  the  sinfulness  of 
the  slave-code.  The  very  instant  the  press  ventures  beyond  its 
prescribed  limits,  the  constitutional  barriers  erected  for  its  pro^ 
tection  sink  into  the  dust,  and  a  censorship,  the  more  stern  and 
vindictive  from  being  illegal,  crushes  it  into  submission.  The 
midnight  burglary  perpetrated  upon  the  Charleston  Post  Office 
and  the  conflagration  of  the  anti-slavery  papers  found  in  it,  are 
well  known.  These  papers  had  been  sent  to  distinguished  citi 
zens,  but  it  was  deemed  inexpedient  to  permit  them  to  read  facts 
and  arguments  against  slavery.  Vast  pains  have  been  taken  to 


NEW    MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  535 

keep  slave-holders  as  well  as  others  ignorant  of  every  fact  and 
argument  that  militates  against  the  system.  Hence  Mr.  Cal- 
houn's  famous  bill,  authorizing  every  southern  postmaster  to 
abstract  from  the  mails  every  paper  relating  to  slavery.  Hence 
the  insane  efforts  constantly  made  to  expurgate  the  literature 
of  the  world  of  all  recognition  of  the  rights  of  Hack  men.  Nov 
els,  annuals,  poems,  and  histories,  containing  sentiments  hostile 
to  human  bondage,  are  proscribed  at  the  South,  and  northern 
publishers  have  had  the  extreme  baseness  to  publish  mutilated 
editions  for  the  southern  market.* 

In  some  of  the  slave  States  laws  have  been  passed  establishing 
a  censorship  of  the  press,  for  the  exclusive  and  special  benefit 
of  the  slaveholders.  Some  time  since  an  anti-slavery  pamphlet 
was  mailed  at  New  York,  directed  to  a  gentleman  in  Virginia. 
Presently  a  letter  was  received  from  William  Wilson,  postmaster 
at  Lexington,  Va.,  saying  : 

"  I  have  to  advise  you  that  a  law,  passed  at  the  last  session  of  the 
Legislature  of  this  State,  which  took  effect  on  the  first  day  of  this 
month,  makes  it  the  duty  of  the  postmasters  or  their  assistants  to  report 
to  some  magistrate  (under  penalty  of  from  $50  to  $200),  the  receipt 
of  all  such  publications  at  his  office  ;  and  if,  on  examination,  the  magis 
trate  is  of  opinion  they  come  under  the  provision  of  the  law,  it  is  his 
duty  to  have  them  BURNT  in  his  presence  —  which  operation  was  per 
formed  on  the  above  mentioned  pamphlet  this  morning" 

The  Rev.  Robert  J.  Breckenridge,  a  well-known  zealous 
opponent  of  abolition,  edited,  in  1835,  "  The  Baltimore  Religious 
Magazine."  A  number  of  this  magazine  contained  an  article 
from  a  correspondent,  entitled  "  Bible-Slavery."  The  tone  of 
this  article  not  suiting  the  slave-breeders  of  Petersburg,  (Va.,) 
the  subscribers  were  deprived  of  the  numbers  forwarded  to  them 
through  the  post-office  of  that  town.  The  magazines  were  taken 
from  the  office,  and  on  the  8th  of  May,  1838,  were  burnt  in  the 
street,  before  the  door  of  the  public  reading-room,  in  the  presence 
and  by  the  direction  of  the  mayor  and  recorder! 

*  The  Harpers,  of  New  York,  in  reply  to  a  letter  from  the  South,  complain 
ing  of  the  anti-slavery  sentiments  in  a  book  they  had  recently  published, 
stated  :  "  Since  the  receipt  of  your  letter  we  have  published  an  edition  of  the 
'  Woods  and  Fields,'  in  which  the  offensive  matter  has  been  omitted.'" 


536  JAY'S  WORKS* 

It  is  surely  unnecessary  to  remark,  that  this  Virginia  law  is 
in  contemptuous  violation  of  the  constitution  of  Virginia,  and  of 
the  authority  of  the  Federal  Government.  The  act  of  Congress 
requires  each  postmaster  to  deliver  the  papers  which  come  to  his 
office  to  the  persons  to  whom  they  are  directed,  and  they  require 
him  to  take  an  oath  to  fulfil  his  duty.  The  Virginia  law  imposes 
duties  on  an  officer  over  whom  they  have  no  control,  utterly  at 
variance  with  his  oath,  and  the  obligations  under  which  he 
assumed  the  office.  If  the  postmaster  must  select,  under  a 
heavy  penalty,  for  a  public  bonfire,  all  papers  bearing  on  slavery, 
why  may  he  not  be  hereafter  required  to  select,  for  the  same 
fate,  all  papers  hostile  to  Popery  ?  Yet  similar  laws  are  now  in 
force  in  various  slave  States. 

Not  only  is  this  espionage  exercised  over  the  mail,  but  meas 
ures  are  taken  to  keep  the  community  in  ignorance  of  what  is 
passing  abroad  in  relation  to  slavery,  and  what  opinions  are 
elsewhere  held  respecting  it. 

On  the  first  of  August,  1842,  an  interesting  address  was  de 
livered  in  Massachusetts,  by  the  late  Dr.  Channing,  in  relation 
to  West  India  emancipation,  embracing,  as  was  natural  and 
proper,  reflections  on  American  slavery.  This  address  was 
copied  into  a  New  York  weekly  paper,  and  the  number  con 
taining  it  was  offered  for  sale,  as  usual,  by  the  agent  of  the 
periodical  at  Charleston.  Instantly  the  agent  was  prosecuted 
by  the  South  Carolina  Association,  and  was  held  to  bail  in  the 
sum  of  one  thousand  dollars,  to  answer  for  his  CRIME.  Pres 
ently  after,  this  same  agent  received  for  sale  a  supply  of 
"  Dickens'  Notes  on  the  United  States,"  but  having  before  his 
eyes  the  fear  of  the  slave-holders,  he  gave  notice  in  the  news 
papers,  that  the  book  would  "  be  submitted  to  highly  intelligent 
members  of  the  South  Carolina  Association  for  inspection,  and 
IF  the  sale  is  approved  by  them,  it  will  be  for  sale  —  if  not, 
not."  And  so  the  population  of  one  of  the  largest  cities  of  the 
slave-region  were  not  permitted  to  read  a  book  they  were  all 
burning  with  impatience  to  see,  till  the  volume  had  been  first 
inspected  by  a  self-constituted  board  of  censors !  The  slave 
holders,  however,  were  in  this  instance  afraid  to  put  their  power 


NEW   MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  537 

to  the  test ;  the  people  might  have  rebelled  if  forbidden  to  read 
the  "  Notes,"  and  hence  one  of  the  most  powerful,  effective  anti- 
slavery  tracts  yet  issued  from  the  press  was  permitted  to  be 
circulated,  because  people  would  read  what  Dickens  had  writ 
ten.  Surely,  you  will  not  accuse  us  of  slander,  when  we  say 
that  the  slave-holders  have  abolished  the  liberty  of  the  press. 
Remember  the  assertion  of  the  editor  of  the  Missouri  Argus: 
"  Abolition  editors  in  the  slave  States  will  not  dare  to  avow 
their  opinions  :  it  would  be  INSTANT  DEATH  to  them." 

11.    MILITARY  WEAKNESS. 

A  distinguished  foreigner,  after  travelling  in  the  Southern 
States,  remarked  that  the  very  aspect  of  the  country  bore  testi 
mony  that,  defenceless  and  exposed  as  they  are,  it  would  be 
madness  to  hazard  a  civil  war ;  and  surely  no  people  in  the 
world  have  more  cause  to  shrink  from  an  appeal  to  arms.  We 
find  at  the  South  no  one  element  ol  military  strength.  Slavery, 
as  we  have  seen,  checks  the  progress  of  population,  of  the  arts, 
of  enterprise,  and  of  industry.  But  above  all,  the  laboring 
class,  which  in  other  countries  affords  the  materials  of  which 
armies  are  composed,  is  regarded  at  the  South  as  a  most  deadly 
foe ;  and  the  sight  of  a  thousand  negroes  with  arms  in  their 
hands,  would  send  a  thrill  of  terror  through  the  stoutest  hearts, 
and  excite  a  panic  which  no  number  of  the  veteran  troops  of 
Europe  could  produce.  Even  now,  laws  are  in  force  to  keep 
arms  out  of  the  hands  of  a  population  which  ought  to  be  a  reli 
ance  in  danger,  but  which  is  dreaded  by  day  and  night,  in  peace 
and  war. 

During  our  revolutionary  war,  when  the  idea  of  negro  emanci 
pation  had  scarcely  entered  the  imagination  of  any  of  our  citizens 
—  when  there  were  no  "fanatic  abolitionists,"  no  "incendiary 
publications,"  no  "  treasonable  "  anti-slavery  associations  ;  in 
those  palmy  days  of  slavery,  no  small  portion  of  the  southern 
militia  were  withdrawn  from  the  defence  of  the  country  to  pro 
tect  the  slave-holders  from  the  vengeance  of  their  own  bond 
men  !  This  you  would  be  assured  was  abolition  slander,  were 
46 


538  JAY'S  WORKS. 

not  the  fact  recorded  in  the  national  archives.  The  Secret  Jour 
nal  of  Congress  (Vol.  I,  p.  105)  contains  the  following  re 
markable  and  instructive  record : 

"March  29th,  1779. — The  committee  appointed  to  take  into  consid 
eration  the  circumstances  of  the  Southern  States,  and  the  ways  and 
means  for  their  safety  and  defence,  report,  That  the  State  of  South 
Carolina  (as  represented  by  the  delegates  of  the  said  State,  and  by 
Mr.  Huger,  who  has  come  hither  at  the  request  of  the  Governor  of 
said  State,  on  purpose  to  explain  the  particular  circumstances  thereof,) 
is  UNABLE  to  make  any  effectual  efforts  with  militia,  by  reason  of  the 
great  proportion  of  ^citizens  necessary  to  remain  at  home,  to  prevent 
insurrection  among  the  negroes,  and  to  prevent  the  desertion  of  them 
to  the  enemy.  That  the  state  of  the  country,  and  the  great  number 
of  these  people  among  them,  expose  the  inhabitants  to  great  danger, 
from  the  endeavors  of  the  enemy  to  excite  them  to  revolt  or  desert." 

At  the  first  census,  in  1790,  eleven  years  after  this  report, 
and  when  the  slaves  had  unquestionably  greatly  increased  their 
numbers,  they  were  only  107,004  fewer  than  the  whites.  If, 
then,  these  slaves  exposed  their  masters  "  to  great  danger,"  and 
the  militia  of  South  Carolina  were  obliged  to  stay  at  home  to 
protect  their  families,  not  from  the  foreign  invaders,  but  the 
domestic  enemies,  what  would  be  the  condition  of  the  little 
blustering  nullifying  State,  with  a  foreign  army  on  her  shores, 
and  335,000  slaves  ready  to  aid  it,  while  her  own  white  popu 
lation,  militia  and  all,  is  but  as  two  whites  to  three  blacks  ? 

Slave-holders,  in  answer  to  the  abolitionists,  are  wont  to 
boast  of  the  fidelity  and  attachment  of  their  slaves ;  among 
themselves  they  freely  avow  their  dread  of  these  same  faithful 
and  attached  slaves,  and  are  fertile  in  expedients  to  guard 
against  their  vengeance. 

It  is  natural  that  we  should  fear  those  whom  we  are  conscious 
of  having  deeply  injured,  and  all  history  and  experience  testify 
that  fear  is  a  cruel  passion.  Hence  the  shocking  severity  with 
which,  in  all  slave  countries,  attempts  to  shake  off  an  unrighteous 
yoke  are  punished.  So  late  even  as  1822,  certain  slaves  in 
Charleston  were  suspected  of  an  intention  to  rise  and  assert  their 
freedom.  No  overt  act  was  committed,  but  certain  blacks  were 
found  who  professed  to  testify  against  their  fellows,  and  some, 
it  is  said,  confessed  their  intentions. 


NEW  MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  539 

On  this  ensued  one  of  the  most  horrible  judicial  butcheries  on 
record.  It  is  not  deemed  necessary,  in  the  chivalrous  Palmetto 
State,  to  give  grand  and  petit  juries  the  trouble  of  indicting  and 
trying  slaves,  even  when  their  lives  are  at  stake.  A  court,  con 
sisting  of  two  justices  of  the  peace  and  five  freeholders,  was 
convened  for  the  trial  of  the  accused,  and  the  following  were 
the  results  of  their  labors :  — 

July  2  6  hanged, 

"    12  2       " 

«    26  22       " 

«    30 4       " 

August  9  1       " 

Total     ••     35       « 

Now  let  it  be  remembered  that  this  sacrifice  of  human  life 
was  made  by  one  of  the  lowest  tribunals  in  the  State  ;  a 
tribunal  consisting  of  two  petty  magistrates  and  five  freeholders, 
appointed  for  the  occasion,  not  possessing  a  judicial  rank,  nor 
professing  to  be  learned  in  the  law ;  in  short,  a  tribunal  which 
would  not  be  trusted  to  decide  the  title  to  an  acre  of  ground  — 
we  refer  not  to  individuals  composing  the  court,  but  to  the  court 
itself; — a  court  which  has  not  power  to  take  away  the  land  of 
a  white  man,  hangs  black  men  by  dozens ! 

Listen  to  the  confessions  of  the  slave-holders  with  regard  to  their 
happy  dependents ;  the  men  who  are  so  contented  under  the 
patriarchal  system,  and  whose  condition  might  well  excite  the 
envy  of  northern  laborers,  "  the  great  democratic  rabble." 

Governor  Hayne,  in  his  message  of  1833,  warned  the  South 
Carolina  Legislature,  that  "a  state  of  military  preparation 
must  always  be  with  us  a  state  of  perfect  domestic  security.  A 
profound  peace,  and  consequent  apathy,  may  expose  us  to  the 
danger  of  domestic  insurrection"  So  it  seems  the  happy  slaves 
are  to  be  kept  from  insurrection  by  a  state  of  military  prepara 
tion.  We  have  seen  that,  during  the  revolutionary  ivar,  the 
Carolina  militia"  were  kept  at  home  watching  the  slaves, 
instead  of  meeting  the  British  in  the  field ;  but  now  it  seems 


540  JAY'S  WORKS. 

the  same  task  awaits  the  militia  in  a  season  of  profound  peace. 
Another  South  Carolian*  admonishes  his  countrymen  thus  : 

"  Let  it  never  be  forgotten  that  our  negroes  are  truly  the  Jacobins 
of  the  country  :  that  they  are  the  anarchists,  and  the  domestic  enemy, 

THE  COMMON  ENEMY  OF  CIVILIZED  SOCIETY,  AND  THE  BARBARI 
ANS  WHO  WOULD,  IF  THEY  COULD,  BECOME  THE  DESTROYERS  OF 
OUR  RACE." 

Again,  "  Hatred  to  the  whites,  with  the  exception,  in  some  cases,  of 
attachment  to  the  person  and  family  of  the  master,  is  nearly  universal 
among  the  black  population.  We  have  then  a  FOE,  cherished  in  our 
very  bosoms  —  a  foe  WILLING  TO  DRAW  OUR  LIFE-BLOOD  whenever 
the  opportunity  is  offered  ;  in  the  mean  time  intent  on  doing  us  all  the 
mischief  in  his  power."  Southern  Religious  Telegraph. 

In  a  debate  in  the  Kentucky  Legislature,  in  1841,  Mr. 
Harding,  opposing  the  repeal  of  the  law  prohibiting  the  im 
portation  of  slaves  from  other  States,  and  looking  forward  to 
the  time  when  the  blacks  would  greatly  out-number  the  whites, 
exclaimed : 

"  In  such  a  state  of  things,  suppose  an  insurrection  of  the  slaves  to 
take  place.  The  master  has  become  timid  and  fearful,  the  slave  bold 
and  daring — the  white  men,  overpowered  with  a  sense  of  superior 
numbers  on  the  part  of  the  slaves,  cannot  be  embodied  together  ;  every 
man  must  guard  his  own  hearth  and  Jireside.  No  man  would  even  dare 
for  an  hour  to  leave  his  own  habitation  ;  if  he  did,  he  would  expect  on 
his  return  to  find  his  wife  and  children  massacred.  But  the  slaves, 
with  but  little  more  than  the  shadow  of  opposition  before  them,  armed 
with  the  consciousness  of  superior  force  and  superior  numbers  on  their 
side,  animated  with  the  hope  of  liberty,  and  maddened  with  the  spirit 
of  revenge,  embody  themselves  in  every  neighborhood,  and  furiously 
march  over  the  country,  visiting  every  neighborhood  with  all  the 
horrors  of  civil  war  and  bloodshed.  And  thus  the  yoke  would  be 
transferred  from  the  black  to  the  white  man,  and  the  master  fall  a 
bleeding  victim  to  his  own  slave." 

Such  are  the  terrific  visions  which  are  constantly  presenting 
themselves  to  the  affrighted  imaginations  of  the  slave-holders ; 
such  the  character  which,  among  themselves,  they  attribute  to 
their  own  domestics. 

Attend  to  one  more,  and  that  one  an  extraordinary  confession  : 

"We  of  the  South  are  emphatically  surrounded  by  a  dangerous 
class  of  beings — degraded  and  stupid  savages,  who,  if  they  could  but 

*  The  author  of  "  A  Refutation  of  the  Calumnies  inculcated  against  the 
Southern  and  Western  States," 


NEW   MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  541 

once  entertain  the  idea  that  immediate  and  unconditional  death  would 
not  be  their  portion,  would  re-act  the  St.  Domingo  tragedy.  But  a 
consciousness,  with  all  their  stupidity,  that  a  ten-fold  force,  superior 
in  discipline,  if  not  in  barbarity,  would  gather  from  the  four  corners  of 
the  United  States,  and  slaughter  them,  keeps  them  in  subjection.  But 
to  the  non-slaveliolding  States  particularly,  are  we  indebted  for  a  per 
manent  safeguard  against  insurrection.  Without  their  assistance,  the 
white  population  of  the  South  would  be  too  weak  to  quiet  the  innate 
desire  for  liberty,  which  is  ever  ready  to  act  itself  out  with  every 
rational  creature."  Maysville  Intelligencer. 

And  now  we  ask  you,  if  all  these  declarations  and  confessions 
be  true, —  and  who  can  doubt  it  ?  —  what  must  be  their  inevita 
ble  condition,  should  their  soil  be  invaded  by  a  foreign  foe, 
bearing  the  standard  of  EMANCIPATION  ? 

In  perfect  accordance  with  the  above  confession,  that  to  the 
non-slaveliolding  States  the  South  is  indebted  for  a  permanent 
safeguard  against  insurrection,  Mr.  Underwood,  of  Kentucky, 
uttered  these  pregnant  words  in  a  debate,  in  1842,  in  Congress : 

"THE  DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  UNION  WILL  BE  THE  DISSOLU 
TION  OF  SLAVERY." 

The  action  of  the  Federal  Government  is,  we  know,  controlled 
by  the  slave  interest ;  and  what  testimony  does  that  action  bear 
to  the  military  weakness  of  the  South  ?  Let  the  reports  of  its 
high  functionaries  answer. 

The  Secretary  of  War,  in  his  report  for  1842,  remarked : 

"  The  works  intended  for  the  more  remote  southern  portion  of  our 
territory,  particularly  require  attention.  Indications  are  already  made 
of  designs  of  the  worst  character  against  that  region,  in  the  event  of 
hostilities  from  a  certain  quarter,  to  which  we  cannot  be  insensible." 

The  Secretary's  fears  had  been  evidently  excited  by  the  or 
ganization  of  Hack  regiments  in  the  British  West  Indies,  and 
the  threats  of  certain  English  writers,  that  a  war  between  the 
two  countries  would  result  in  the  liberation  of  the  slaves.  The 
report  from  the  Quarter-Master,  General  Jessup,  a  southern 
man,  betrays  the  same  anxiety,  and  in  less  ambiguous  terms  : 

"  In  the  event  of  a  war,"  says  he,  "  with  either  of  the  great  European 
powers  possessing  colonies  in  the  West  Indies,  there  will  be  danger 
of  the  peninsula  of  Florida  being  occupied  by  BLACKS  from  the 
Islands.  A  proper  regard  for  the  security  of  our  Southern  States 
requires  that  prompt  and  efficient  measures  be  adopted  to  prevent 
such  a  state  of  things." 
46* 


542  JAY'S 

The  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  a  slave-holder,  hints  his  fears  in 
cautious  circumlocution.  Speaking  of  the  event  of  a  war  with 
any  considerable  maritime  power,  he  says  : 

"  It  would  be  a  war  of  incursions  aimed  at  revolution.  The  first 
blow  would  be  struck  at  us  through  our  institutions ; "  he  means,  of 
course,  "  the  peculiar  institution."  He  then  proceeds  to  show  that  the 
enemy  would  seek  success  "  in  arraying  what  are  supposed  to  be  the 
hostile  elements  of  our  social  system  against  each  other;"  and  he 
admits,  that  "  even  in  the  best  event,  war  on  our  soil  would  be  the 
more  expensive,  the  more  embarrassing,  and  the  more  HORRIBLE  in 
its  effects,  by  compelling  us  at  the  same  time  to  oppose  an  enemy  in 
the  field,  and  to  guard  against  all  attempts  to  subvert  our  social  system." 

In  plain  language,  an  invading  enemy  would  strike  the  first 
blow  at  the  slave  system,  and  thus  aim  at  revolution,  —  a  revo 
lution  that  would  give  liberty  to  two  and  a  half  millions  of 
human  beings ;  and  such  a  war  would  be  very  embarrassing 
to  the  slave-holders,  and  the  more  horrible,  because,  as  formerly 
in  South  Carolina,  a  large  share  of  their  military  force  would 
necessarily  be  employed,  not  in  fighting  the  enemy,  but  in  guard 
ing  the  SOCIAL,  that  is,  the  "  patriarchal  system." 

No  persons  are  more  sensible  of  their  hazardous  situation 
than  the  slave-holders  themselves,  and  hence,  as  is  common  with 
people  who  are  secretly  conscious  of  their  own  weakness,  they 
attempt  to  supply  the  want  of  strength  by  a  bullying  insolence, 
hoping  to  effect  by  intimidation  what  they  well  know  can  be 
effected  in  no  other  way.  This  game  has  long  been  played,  and 
with  great  success,  in  Congress.  It  has  been  attempted  in  our 
negotiations  with  Great  Britain,  and  has  signally  failed. 

The  slave-holders,  whatever  may  be  their  vaunts,  are  con 
scious  of  their  military  weakness,  and  shrink  from  any  contest 
which  may  cause  a  foreign  army  to  plant  the  standard  of  eman 
cipation  upon  their  soil.  The  very  idea  of  an  armed  negro 
startles  their  fearful  imaginations.  This  is  disclosed  on  innu 
merable  occasions,  but  was  conspicuously  manifested  in  a  debate 
in  the  Senate.  In  July,  1842,  a  bill  to  regulate  enlistments  in 
the  naval  service  being  under  consideration,  Mr.  CALHOUN  pro 
posed  an  amendment,  that  negroes  should  be  enlisted  only  as 
cooks  and  stewards.  He  thought  it  a  matter  of  great  consequence 
not  to  admit  blacks  into  our  vessels  of  national  defence.  Mr. 


NEW   MEXICO    AXD    CALIFORNIA.  543 

BENTON  thought  all  arms,  whether  on  land  or  sea,  ought  to  be 
borne  by  the  white  race. 

Mr.  BAGBY  : — "  In  the  southern  portion  of  the  Union,  the 
great  object  was  to  keep  arms  and  a  knowledge  of  arms  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  blacks.  The  subject  addressed  itself  to  every 
southern  heart.  Self-preservation  was  the  first  law  of  nature, 
and  the  South  must  look  to  that." 

On  the  motion  of  Mr.  PRESTON,  the  bill  wras  so  amended  as 
to  include  the  army. 

And  think  you  that  men,  thus  in  awe  of  their  own  dependents, 
shuddering  at  a  musket  in  the  hands  of  a  black,  and  with  a  popu 
lation  of  two  millions  and  a  half  of  these  dreaded  slaves,  will 
expose  themselves  to  the  tremendous  consequences  of  a  union 
between  their  domestic  and  foreign  enemies  ?  Of  the  four  who 
voted  against  the  British  treaty,  probably  not  one  would  have 
given  the  vote  he  did,  had  he  not  known  to  a  certainty  that  the 
treaty  would  be  ratified. 

Think  not  we  are  disposed  to  ridicule  the  fears  of  the  slave 
holders,  or  to  question  their  personal  courage.  God  knows  their 
perils  are  real,  and  not  imaginary ;  and  who  can  question,  that 
with  a  hostile  British  army  in  the  heart  of  Virginia  or  Alabama, 
the  whole  slave-region  would  presently  become  one  vast  scene  of 
horror  and  desolation?  Heretofore  the  invaders  of  our  soil 
were  themselves  interested  in  slave  property ;  now  they  would 
be  zealous  emancipationists,  and  they  would-be  accompanied  by 
the  most  terrific  vision  which  could  meet  the  eye  of  a  slave 
holder,  regiments  of  Hack  troops,  fully  equipped  and  disciplined. 
Surely  such  a  state  of  things  might  well  appall  the  bravest 
heart,  and  palsy  the  stoutest  arm. 

We  have  called  your  attention  to  the  practical  influence  of 
slavery  on  various  points  deeply  affecting  the  public  prosperity 
and  happiness.  These  are  : 

1.  Increase  of  population.  7.  Disregard  for  human  life. 

2.  State  of  education.  8.  Disregard  for  constitutional 

3.  Industry  and  enterprise.  obligations. 

4.  Feeling  towards  the  laboring  9.  Liberty  of  speech. 

classes.  10.  Liberty  of  the  press. 

5.  State  of  religion.  11.  Military  weakness. 

6.  State  of  morals. 


544  JAY'S  WORKS. 

You  will  surely  agree  with  us,  that  in  many  of  these  particu 
lars,  the  southern  States  are  sunk  far  below  the  ordinary  condi 
tion  of  civilized  nations. 

Let  us  inquire  whether  the  inferior  and  unhappy  condition  of 
the  slave  States  can  be  ascribed  to  any  natural  disadvantage,  or 
to  any  partial  or  unjust  legislation  by  the  Federal  Government. 

In  the  first  place,  the  slave  States  cannot  pretend  that  they 
have  not  received  their  full  share  of  the  national  domain,  and 
that  the  narrowness  of  their  territorial  limits  has  retarded  the 
development  of  their  enterprise  and  resources.  The  area  of  the 
slave  States  is  nearly  double,  that  of  the  free.  New  York  has 
acquired  the  title  of  the  Empire  State;  yet  she  is  inferior 
in  size  to  Virginia,  Missouri,  Georgia,  Louisiana,  or  North 
Carolina. 

Nor  can  it  be  maintained  that  the  free  States  are  in  advance 
of  the  slave  States,  because  from  an  earlier  settlement  they  had 
the  start  in  the  race  of  improvement.  Virginia  is  not  only  the 
largest,  but  the  oldest  settled  State  in  the  confederacy.  She, 
together  with  Delaware,  Maryland,  North  Carolina  and  South 
Carolina,  were  all  settled  before  Pennsylvania. 

Nor  will  any  slave-holder  admit,  that  Providence  has  scattered 
his  gifts  with  a  more  sparing  hand  at  the  South  than  at  the 
North.  The  richness  of  their  soil,  the  salubrity  of  their  climate, 
the  number  and  magnitude  of  their  rivers,  are  themes  on  which 
they  delight  to  dwell.  Hence  the  moral  difference  between  the 
two  sections  of  our  republic  must  arise  from  other  than  natural 
causes..  It  appears  also  that  this  difference  is  becoming  wider 
and  wider.  Of  this  fact  we  could  give  various  proofs ;  but  let 
one  suffice. 

At  the  first  census  in  1790,  the  free  population  of  the 

present  free  States  and  Territories  was 1,930,125 

Of  the  slave  States  and  Territories, 1,394,847 

Difference, 535,278 

By  the  last  census,  1840,  the  same  population  in  the 

free  States  and  Territories  was 9,782,415 

In  the  slave  States  and  Territories, 4,793,738 

Difference, 4,988,677 


NEW  MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  545 

Thus  it  appears  that  in  1790  the  free  population  of  the  South 
was  seventy-two  per  cent,  of  that  of  the  North,  and  that  in 
1840  it  was  only  forty-nine  per  cent.;  while  the  difference  in 
1840  is  more  than  nine  times  as  great  as  it  was  in  1790. 

Fifty  years  have  given  the  North  an  increased  preponderance 
of  about  four  and  a  half  millions  of  free  citizens.  Another  fifty 
years  will  increase  this  preponderance  in  a  vastly  augmented 
ratio.  And  now  we  ask  you,  why  this  downward  course  ?  Is 
it  because  the  interests  of  the  slave-holders  are  not  represented 
in  the  national  councils  ?  Let  us  see.  We  have  already  shown 
you  that  the  free  population  is  only  forty-nine  per  cent,  of  that 
of  the  northern  States  ;  that  is,  the  inhabitants  of  the  free 
States  are  more  than  double  the  free  inhabitants  of  the  slave 
States.  Now,  what  is  the  proportion  of  members  of  Congress 
from  the  two  sections  ? 

In  the  Senate,  the  slave  States  have  precisely  as  many  as  the 
free ;  and  in  the  lower  House,  their  members  are  sixty-five  per 
cent,  of  those  from  the  free  States.* 

The  Senate  has  a  veto  on  every  law ;  and  as  one  half  of  that 
body  are  slave-holders,  it  follows,  of  course,  that  no  law  can  be 
passed  without  their  consent.  Nor  has  any  bill  passed  the  Sen 
ate  since  the  organization  of  the  government,  but  by  the  votes 
of  slave-holders.  It  is  idle,  therefore,  for  them  to  impute  their 
depressed  condition  to  unjust  and  partial  legislation,  since  they 
have  from  the  very  first  controlled  the  action  of  Congress.  Not 
a  law  has  been  passed,  not  a  treaty  ratified,  but  by  their  votes. 

Nor  is  this  all.  Appointments  under  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  are  made  by  the  President,  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate, 
and  of  course  the  slave-holders  have,  and  always  have  had,  a 
veto  on  every  appointment.  There  is  not  an  officer  of  the  Fed 
eral  Government  to  whose  appointment  slave-holding  members 
of  the  Senate  have  not  consented.  Yet  all  this  gives  but  an 
inadequate  idea  of  the  political  influence  exercised  by  the  people 
of  the  slave  States  in  the  election  of  President,  and  consequently 
over  the  policy  of  his  administration.  In  consequence  of  the 

*  135  from  the  free  and  88  members  from  the  slave  States.  According  to 
free  population,  the  South  would  have  only  66  members. 


546  JAY'S  WORKS. 

peculiar  apportionment  of  Presidential  electors  among  the  States, 
and  the  operation  of  the  rule  of  federal  numbers  —  whereby, 
for  the  purpose  of  estimating  the  representative  population, 
five  slaves  are  counted  as  three  white  men  —  most  extraordinary 
results  are  exhibited  at  every  election  of  President,  In  the 
election  of  1848,  the  electors  chosen  were  290;  of  these  169 
were  from  the  free,  and  121  from  the  slave  States. 

The  popular  vote  in  the  free  States  was  2,029,551,  or  one 
elector  to  12,007  voters. 

The  popular  vote  in  the  slave  States  was  845,050,  or  one 
elector  to  7,545  voters.* 

Even  this  disproportion,  enormous  as  it  is,  is  greatly  aggra 
vated  in  regard  to  particular  States. 

New  York      gave  455,761  votes,  and  had  36  electors. 

Virginia       ) 

Maryland     V-  gave  242,547     "  "         36       " 

N.  Carolina) 

Ohio  gave  328,489     "  "         28       " 

Delaware 


Georgia 

Louisiana 

Alabama 

Arkansas 

Florida 

Texas 


gave  237,811     "  «         38 


These  facts  address  themselves  to  the  understanding  of  all, 
and  prove,  beyond  cavil,  that  the  slave  States  have  a  most  unfair 
and  unreasonable  representation  in  Congress,  and  a  very  dispro 
portionate  share  in  the  election  of  President. 

Nor  can  these  States  complain  that  they  are  stinted  in  the 
distribution  of  the  patronage  of  the  national  government.  The 
rule  of  federal  numbers,  confined  by  the  Constitution  to  the 
apportionment  of  representatives,  has  been  extended,  by  the 
influence  of  the  slave-holders,  to  other  and  very  different  sub 
jects.  Thus,  the  distribution  among  the  States  of  the  surplus 
revenue,  and  of  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands,  was  made 
according  to  this  same  iniquitous  rule. 

*  South  Carolina  had  nine  electors,  chosen  by  the  Legislature.  These  are 
deducted  in  the  calculation. 


NEW   MEXICO    AND    CALIFORNIA.  547 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  slave-holders  have  failed  to 
avail  themselves  of  their  influence  in  the  Federal  Government. 
A  very  brief  statement  will  convince  you,  that  if  they  are  now 
feeble  and  emaciated,  it  is  not  because  they  have  been  deprived 
of  their  share  of  the  loaves  and  fishes. 

By  law,  midshipmen  and  cadets,  at  West  Point,  are  appointed 
according  to  the  federal  ratio;  thus  have  the  slave-holders 
secured  to  themselves  an  additional  number  of  officers  in  the 
army  and  navy,  on  account  of  their  slaves. 

Eeflect  for  a  moment  on  the  vast  patronage  wielded  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  then  recollect,  that  should 
the  present  incumbent  (General  Taylor)  serve  his  full  term,  the 
office  will  have  been  filled  no  less  than  fifty-two  years  out  of 
sixty-four  by  slave-holders !  * 

Of  twenty-one  Secretaries  of  State,  appointed  up  to  5th  of 
March,  1849,  only  six  have  been  taken  from  the  free  States. 

For  thirty-seven  years  out  of  sixty  the  chair  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  has  been  filled,  and  its  committees  appointed  by 
slave-holders. 

Of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  eighteen  have  been 
taken  from  the  slave,  and  but  fourteen  from  the  free  States. 

In  1842,  the  United  States  were  represented  at  foreign  courts 
by  nineteen  Ministers  and  Charges  d' Affaires.  Of  these  fat 
offices,  no  less  than  thirteen  were  assigned  to  slave-holders ! 

Surely,  surely,  if  the  South  be  wanting  in  every  element  of 
prosperity  —  if  ignorance,  barbarity  and  poverty  be  her  charac 
teristics,  it  is  not  because  she  has  not  exercised  her  due  influence 
in  the  general  government,  or  received  her  share  of  its  honors 
and  emoluments. 

PROSPECTS  FOR  THE  FUTURE. 

If,  then,  with  all  the  natural  and  political  advantages  we  have 
enumerated,  the  progress  of  the  slave  States  is  still  downward, 
and  has  been  so,  compared  with  the  other  sections  of  the  country, 
since  the  first  organization  of  the  Government,  what  are  the 

*  Except  one  month  by  General  Harrison 


548  JAY'S  WOKKS. 

anticipations  of  the  distant  future,  which  sober  reflection  au 
thorizes  us  to  form  ?  The  causes  which  now  retard  the  increase 
of  their  population  must  continue  to  operate,  so  long  as  slavery 
lasts.  Emigrants  from  the  North,  and  from  foreign  countries, 
will,  as  at  present,  avoid  their  borders,  within  which  no  attrac 
tions  will  be  found  for  virtue  and  industry.  On  the  other  hand, 
many  of  the  young  and  enterprising  will  flee  from  the  lassitude, 
the  anarchy,  the  wretchedness  engendered  by  slavery,  and  seek 
their  fortunes  in  lands  where  law  affords  protection,  and  where 
labor  is  honored  and  rewarded. 

In  the  meantime,  especially  in  the  cotton  States,  the  slaves 
will  continue  to  increase  in  a  ratio  far  beyond  the  whites,  and 
will  at  length  acquire  a  fearful  preponderance. 

At  the  first  census,  in  every  slave  State  there  was  a  very  large 
majority  of  whites ;  now,  the  slaves  out-number  the  whites  in 
South  Carolina,  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana,  and  the  next  census 
will  unquestionably  add  Florida  and  Alabama,  and  probably 
Georgia,  to  the  number  of  negro  States. 

And  think  you  that  this  is  the  country,  and  this  the  age,  in 
which  the  republican  maxim  that  the  MAJORITY  must  govern, 
can  be  long  and  barbarously  reversed  ?  Think  you  that  the 
majority  of  the  PEOPLE  in  the  cotton  States,  cheered  and  en 
couraged  as  they  will  be  by  the  sympathy  of  the  world,  and  the 
example  of  the  West  Indies,  will  forever  tamely  submit  to  be 
beasts  of  burden  for  a  few  lordly  planters  ?  And  remember,  we 
pray  you,  that  the  number  and  physical  strength  of  the  negroes 
will  increase  in  a  much  greater  ratio  than  that  of  their  masters. 

In  1700  the  whites  were  to  the  slaves  in 

N.  Carolina  as 2.80  to  1,  now  as  1.97  to  1 

S.  Carolina,      1.31  to  1,      "        .79  to  1 

Georgia,  1.76  to  1,       "       1.44  to  1 

Tennessee,        13.35  to  1,       "       3.49  to  1 

Kentucky,        5.16  to  1,      "       3.23  to  1 

Maryland  and  Virginia,  the  great  breeding  States,  have 
reduced  their  stock  within  the  last  few  years,  having  been 
tempted,  by  high  prices,  to  ship  off  thousands  and  tens  of  thou 
sands  to  the  markets  of  Louisiana,  Alabama,  and  Mississippi. 


NEW   MEXICO   AND    CALIFORNIA.  549 

But  these  markets  are  already  glutted,  and  human  flesh  has 
fallen  in  value  from  fifty  to  seventy-five  per  cent.  Nor  is  it 
probable  that  the  great  staple  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  will 
hereafter  afford  a  bounty  on  its  production.  In  these  States 
slave-labor  is  unprofitable,  and  the  bondman  is  of  but  little 
value,  save  as  an  article  of  exportation.  The  cotton  cultivation 
in  the  East  Indies,  by  cheapening  the  article,  will  close  the 
markets  in  the  South,  and  thus  it  guarantees  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  breeding  States.  "When  it  shall  be  found  no 
longer  profitable  to  raise  slaves  for  the  market,  the  stock  on  hand 
will  be  driven  South  and  sold  for  what  it  may  fetch,  and  free 
labor  substituted  in  its  place.  This  process  will  be  attended 
with  results  disastrous  to  the  cotton  States.  To  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  it  will  open  a  new  era  of  industry,  prosperity  and 
wealth ;  and  the  industrious  poor,  the  "  mean  whites "  of  the 
South,  will  remove  within  their  borders,  thus  leaving  the  slave 
holders  more  defenceless  than  ever. 

And  what  will  be  .the  condition  of  such  of  the  poor  whites  as 
shall  then  remain  in  the  slave  States  ?  The  change  to  which 
we  have  referred  will  necessarily  aggravate  every  present  evil. 
Ignorance,  vice,  idleness,  lawless  violence,  dread  of  insurrection, 
anarchy,  and  a  haughty  and  vindictive  aristocracy  will  all  com 
bine  with  augmented  energy  in  crushing  them  to  the  earth. 
And  from  what  quarter  can  they  look  for  redemption  ?  Think 
you  the  planting  nobility  will  ever  grant  freedom  to  their  serfs, 
from  sentiments  of  piety  or  patriotism  ?  Remember  that  the 
clergy  of  all  sects  and  ranks,  many  of  them  "  Christian  brokers 
in  the  trade  of  blood,"  unite  in  bestowing  their  benedicton  on 
the  system  as  a  Christian  institution,  and  in  teaching  the  slave 
holders  that  they  wield  the  whip  as  European  monarchs  the 
sceptre,  "  by  the  grace  of  God."  Remember  that  the  beautiful 
and  affecting  contrast  between  the  prosperity  of  the  North  and 
the  desolation  of  the  South,  already  presented  to  you,  was  drawn 
by  W.  C.  Preston,  of  hanging  notoriety.  The  great  slave-holders 
have  no  idea  of  surrendering  the  personal  importance  and  the 
political  influence  they  derive  from  their  slaves.  The  Calhouns, 
Footes,  and  Prestons,  all  go  for  everlasting  slavery. 

47 


550  JAY'S  WORKS, 

Unquestionably  there  are  many  of  the  smaller  slave-holders 
who  would  embrace  abolition  sentiments,  were  they  permitted 
to  examine  the  subject ;  but  at  present  they  are  kept  in  igno 
rance.  If,  then,  the  fetters  of  the  slave  are  not  to  be  broken  by 
the  master,  by  whom  is  he  to  be  liberated  ?  In  the  course  of 
time,  a  hostile  army,  invited  by  the  weakness  or  the  arrogance 
of  the  South,  may  land  on  her  shores.  Then,  indeed,  emanci 
pation  will  be  given,  but  the  gift  may  be  bathed  in  the  blood  of 
the  whites  and  of  their  children.  Or  the  people  —  for  they 
will  be  THE  PEOPLE  —  may  resolve  to  be  free,  and  the  dearest 
interests  of  thousands  may  be  sacrificed  in  the  contest. 

Such,  inhabitants  of  New  Mexico  and  California,  is  the  de 
testable  institution  which  a  few  haughty  and  selfish  men  are 
endeavoring  to  force  upon  you  in  order  to  augment  their  own 
political  power,  and  to  open  new  markets  for  their  human  cattle  ; 
and  such  are  the  calamities  which  their  success  will  entail  upon 
you  and  your  posterity  for  ages  to  come.  Every  dictate  of 
patriotism  and  of  Christian  benevolence  impels  us  to  resist  to  the 
uttermost  the  extension  of  this  abomination  of  desolation  over 
the  new,  fair,  and  vast  addition  recently  made  to  our  Federal 
Union.  Much  as  we  may  prize  this  splendid  acquisition,  may  it 
be  forever  lost  to  us  rather  than  it  should  be  converted  by  the 
American  people  into  a  region  of  ignorance,  vice,  misery,  and 
degradation  by  the  establishment  of  human  bondage.  We  wish 
you  to  be  a  free  and  happy  portion  of  our  great  Republic,  but  if 
the  condition  of  your  union  with  us  be  your  submission  to  the 
mandates  of  the  slave-holders,  we  counsel  you,  we  implore  you, 
by  all  -your  obligations  to  your  God,  yourselves,  your  children, 
and  to  the  opinions  of  the  world,  to  spurn  the  loathsome,  the  sin 
ful  condition.  You  have  all  the  elements  essential  to  the  crea 
tion  of  a  great,  prosperous,  and  independent  empire.  If  you 
cannot  be  free,  happy,  and  virtuous  in  union  with  us,  be  free, 
happy,  and  virtuous  under  a  government  of  your  own.  But  you 
are  not  reduced  to  such  an  alternative.  The  slave-holders  have 
refused  you  a  territorial  government  —  form  one  for  yourselves, 
and  declare  that  no  slave  shall  taint  the  air  you  breathe.  Let  no 
feudal  lord  with  his  hosts  of  serfs  come  among  you  to  rob  you  of 


NEW   MEXICO   AND    CALIFORNIA.  551 

your  equal  share  of  the  rich  deposits  of  your  soil  —  tolerate  no 
servile  caste,  kept  in  ignorance  and  degradation  to  minister  to 
the  power  and  wealth  of  an  oppressive  aristocracy.  Be  firm  and 
resolute  in  declaring  for  independence,  unless  exempted  from  the 
curse  of  slavery,  and  the  whole  North  will  rally  in  your  behalf. 
The  slave-holders  are  losing  their  influence,  and  are  divided 
among  themselves,  while  their  northern  allies,  withering  under 
the  scorn  of  public  opinion,  are  daily  deserting  their  standard. 
Be  true  to  yourselves,  and  your  northern  friends  will  be  true  to 
you,  and  ere  long  you  will  be  received  into  the  Union  on  the 
same  liberal,  safe,  and  honorable  terms  on  which  your  neighbors 
of  Oregon  have  already  been  admitted.  A  glorious  future  of 
power,  opulence,  and  happiness  opens  before  you.  Up,  quit 
yourselves  like  men,  and  may  the  favor  of  God  and  the  blessings 
of  generations  to  come  rest  upon  you. 

NEW  YORK,  August,  1849. 

\  1  VKHSlTY    OF 

TFOKNIA. 


.  I    4  »    I  % 


( 'A 


LETTER 

TO     HON.    WILLIAM    NELSON,    M.    C., 

ON  MR.   CLAFS   COMPROMISE. 


NEW  YORK,  February  11,  1850. 

MY  DEAR  SIR:  —  As  one  of  your  immediate  constituents, 
permit  me  to  express  to  you  my  views  on  the  resolutions  lately 
submitted  to  the  Senate  by  Mr.  Clay.  They  are  skilfully  drawn, 
and  their  true  import  seems  to  me  to  be  generally  misunderstood, 
and  in  many  instances  intentionally  misrepresented.  Various  con 
siderations  combine  to  render  these  resolutions  acceptable  to  that 
class  of  our  northern  politicians,  who  are  anxious  to  be  popular 
at  home,  without  forfeiting  their  share  of  the  patronage  which  is 
dispensed  at  Washington,  by  the  slave  power.  The  resolutions 
are  eight  in  number,  and  I  will  examine  them  in  their  order. 

1.  This  proposes  the  admission  of  California  as  a  State,  with 
out  the  imposition  by  Congress  of  any  restriction  on  the  subject 
of  slavery,  and  "  with  suitable  boundaries."  These  words  imply 
that  the  present  boundaries  are  unsuitable,  and  must  be  altered. 
Let  me  now  call  your  attention  to  the  true  reason  for  this  reserv 
ation  about  boundaries,  and  respecting  which  the  resolution  is 

47* 


554  JAY'S  WORKS. 

silent.  During  the  war,  and  before  the  cession  of  any  territory, 
the  House  of  Representatives  passed  the  Wihnot  Proviso,  pro 
hibiting  slavery  in  all  the  territory  that  might  be  acquired.  On 
this,  the  South,  with  one  voice,  declared  that  they  would  not 
submit  to  the  exclusion  of  slavery  south  of  36°  30'.  The  Legis 
lature  of  Alabama  resolved  that  they  would  not  recognize 
"  any  enactment  of  the  Federal  Government  which  has  for  its 
object  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  any  territory  to  be  acquired 
by  conquest  or  treaty  SOUTH  of  the  line  of  the  Missouri  com 
promise."  At  a  public  meeting  in  Charleston,  and  at  which  I 
believe  Mr.  Calhoun  was  present,  it  was  resolved  that  it  would 
be  debasing  and  dishonorable  to  submit  to  the  prohibition  of 
slavery  "  beyond  what  is  already  yielded  by  the  Missouri  com 
promise  ; "  and  innumerable  have  been  the  offers  and  efforts  of 
southern  politicians  to  extend  the  compromise  line  to  the  Pacific. 
Hence  it  is  not  the  exclusion  of  slavery  in  California  to  the 
north  of  that  line,  that  offends  the  South ;  and  to  admit  this  anti- 
slavery  State,  bounded  on  the  south  by  36°  30',  is  doing  no  more 
than  what  the  South  has  consented  should  be  done,  and  is  in  no 
sense  a  compromise.  But  the  free  State  of  California  extends 
south  of  this  line,  and  hence  her  southern  boundary  is  unsuitable, 
and  hence  Mr.  Clay's  resolution  makes  a  tacit  provision  for  de 
priving  the  State  of  so  much  of  her  territory  as  his  southern 
friends  have  resolved  shall  not  be  consecrated  to  freedom.  Mr. 
Foote,  of  Mississippi,  observed  in  relation  to  this  very  resolution, 
"  I  see  no  objection  to  admitting  all  California  above  the  line  of 
36°  30'  into  the  Union,  provided  another  new  slave  State  be 
laid  off  within  the  present  limits  of  Texas."  To  this  laying  off 
another  new  slave  State,  Mr.  Clay's  compromise  opposes  no  ob 
stacle  !  Had  Mr.  Clay  proposed  the  admission  of  California 
with  its  "  present  boundaries,"  his  offer  would  so  far  have  been 
a  compromise,  as  to  concede  something  to  freedom  as  a  consid 
eration  for  the  surrender  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso. 

2.  The  next  resolution  declares,  that  "as  slavery  does  not 
exist  ty  law,  and  is  not  likely  to  le  introduced  "  into  any  of  the 
conquered  territories,  they  should  be  organized  under  territorial 


MR.  CLAY'S  COMPROMISE.  555 

governments,  without  any  restriction  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 
The  proposed  assertion  by  Congress  that  slavery  does  not  exist 
by  law  in  the  territories,  is  hailed"  as  an  all-sufficient  balm  to  the 
consciences  of  those  who  recoil  with  horror  at  the  idea  of  being 
in  any  degree  responsible  for  the  extension  of  human  bondage. 
And  what,  let  me  ask,  is  this  declaration,  but  the  enunciation  of 
a  bald  truism  ?  We  all  know  there  is  no  law,  Mexican  or 
American,  recognizing  slavery  in  the  territories.  Mr.  Clay 
adroitly  avoids  drawing  any  inference  from  this  acknowledged 
fact,  but  expects  the  good  people  of  the  North  will  draw  for 
themselves  the  inference,  that  because  slavery  does  not  exist  by 
law,  therefore  it  is  prohibited  by  law.  Property  in  elephants 
does  not  exist  by  law,  in  New  York,  but  still  it  exists,  because 
it  is  not  prohibited  by  law.  Mr.  Clay  well  knows  that  Mr.  Cal- 
houn  and  the  great  mass  of  the  slave-holders  contend  that  in  the 
absence  of  a  prohibitory  law,  men,  women  and  children,  as  well 
as  horses  and  sheep,  may  be  held  as  property  in  any  territory  in 
the  United  States ;  and  this  doctrine  Mr.  Clay  himself  nowhere 
denies.  Nay,  further,  Mr.  Calhoun  insists,  and  I  believe  truly, 
that  slavery  never  has  been  established  by  law  in  any  country  — 
that  after  property  in  man  has  been  acquired,  then,  and  not 
before,  laws  are  passed  to  protect  it.  The  slave-holders  ask  for 
no  act  of  Congress  authorizing  them  to  carry  their  property  into 
the  territories.  All  they  ask  is  that  no  prohibitory  law  shall  be 
passed,  and  then  they  will  carry  their  slaves  where  they  please, 
and  keep  them  by  their  own  strong  hand  without  law,  till  in 
their  territorial  legislatures  they  shall  pass  such  laws  on  the 
subject  as  they  shall  find  needful.  Not  a  word  in  Mr.  Clay's 
compromise  contravenes  this  legal  theory,  or  prevents  its  reduc 
tion  to  practice.  Slavery  did  once  exist  by  law  in  these  terri 
tories  ;  why  does  it  not  now  ?  Mr.  Clay  answers  the  question 
by  telling  us  that  Mexican  law  abolished  it.  Now  he  perfectly 
well  knows  that  the  Mexican  law  not  only  abolished  but  prohib 
ited  slavery.  If  that  law  was  repealed  by  the  conquest,  then 
the  old  law  was  revived,  and  slavery  does  now  exist  by  law.  If 
the  law  was  not  repealed  by  the  conquest,  then  the  law  is  still 
in  force,  and  slavery  is  now  prohibited  by  law.  Why,  then,  does 


556  JAY'S  WOKKS. 

not  Mr.  Clay  fairly  and  honestly  declare  that  slavery  is  now 
prohibited  by  law  ?  Because  this  would  indeed  be  a  compromise, 
and  would  render  the  Proviso  nugatory,  and  would  secure  the 
territories  from  the  curse  of  slavery.  The  very  omission  of  such 
a  declaration  implies  a  denial  of  an  existing  prohibition,  and  in 
such  denial  he  well  knows  the  whole  South  concurs.  So  far? 
then,  is  Mr.  Clay's  inconsequential  truism  from  being  a  com 
promise,  that  it  surrenders  to  the  South  even  more  than  she  has 
demanded,  and  throws  open  to  the  slave-holders  the  whole  terri 
tory  north  as  well  as  south  of  the  Missouri  line.  But  to  recon 
cile  the  North  to  this  total  surrender,  they  are  to  be  favored  by 
Congress  with  the  opinion  that  IT  is  NOT  LIKELY  that  slavery 
will  be  introduced  into  any  part  of  the  conquered  territory. 
What  is  only  improbable,  is  at  least  possible,  and  hence  this 
legislative  opinion  would,  in  fact,  be  a  solemn  and  official  decla 
ration,  that  there  is  no  legal  prohibition  to  the  introduction  of 
slavery.  It  is  not  pretended  that  this  opinion  which  Congress 
is  to  volunteer,  is  to  have  any  legal  force  whatsoever.  But 
what  if  time  shall  prove  the  opinion  to  have  been  erroneous  ; 
will  it  be  any  consolation  to  the  North  for  having  by  their  act 
blighted  regions  with  human  bondage,  that  they  had  been  fooled 
by  an  opinion  ? 

Mr.  Downs,  of  Louisiana,  in  reply  to  Mr.  Clay,  asserted  that 
there  were  already  in  the  territories  "  some  four  or  five  hun 
dred  slaves ; "  and  another  member  declared  that  there  would 
now  have  been  plenty  of  slaves  there  had  not  their  masters  been 
apprehensive  of  the  Proviso.  If  Mr.  Clay  is  correct  in  his 
opinion,  the  slave-holders  have  been  strangely  mistaken.  It 
was  openly  avowed  during  the  war,  that  the  territory  to  be  con 
quered  south  of  36°  30'  would  be  a  slave  region.  Before  our 
army  entered  the  city  of  Mexico,  we  were  offered  all  Texas 
proper,  and  the  whole  of  New  Mexico  and  California  north  of 
thirty-seven  degrees,  an  extent  of  territory  equal  to  nine  States 
of  the  size  of  New  York.  The  offer  was  rejected,  and  thousands 
were  slaughtered  to  obtain  territory  south  of  36°  30',  to  be  peo 
pled  with  slaves.  From  the  first  mention  of  the  Proviso,  our 
northern  editors  and  politicians  in  the  slave  interest  opposed  it 


MR.  CLAY'S  COMPROMISE.  557 

as  unnecessary,  because,  as  they  assured  us,  the  soil  and  climate 
of  these  territories  were  unsuitable  to  slave  labor.  The  slave 
holders  knew  better,  and  never  endorsed  the  falsehood  of  their 
allies.  Mr.  Waddy  Thompson,  of  South  Carolina,  Minister  to 
Mexico,  announced  to  his  brethren,  writing  of  California,  "  Sugar, 
rice  and  cotton  find  there  their  own  congenial  clime."  Recol 
lections  of  Mexico i,  p.  234. 

Did  the  South  make  war  upon  Mexico  only  to  acquire  free 
territory  ?  Is  she  now  threatening  disunion  and  civil  war  for  a 
privilege  she  "  is  not  likely  "  to  exercise  ? 

Upon  what  does  Mr.  Clay  rest  his  strange,  unnatural  opinion  ? 
Almost  exclusively  on  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  Cali 
fornia  constitution.  He  does  not  pretend  that  this  exclusion 
was  owing  to  the  unfitness  of  the  soil  and  climate  for  slave  labor. 
We  all  know  that  the  unexpected  discovery  of  gold  suddenly 
collected  in  California  a  large  northern  population,  naturally 
averse  to  slavery,  and  jealous  of  the  competition  of  slave  labor 
in  digging  gold.  But  does  gold  exist  in  Deseret  or  New  Mex 
ico  ?  or  is  there  a  large  northern  population  in  California,  south 
of  30°  30'  ?  Is  it  logical  to  infer  that  slavery  is  not  likely  to  be 
introduced  into  these  territories,  even  with  the  sanction  of  Con 
gress,  because  under  totally  different  circumstances  it  has  been 
excluded  from  California?  New  Mexico  is  separated  by  an 
imaginary  line  from  Texas,  and  about  half  of  it  is  claimed  by 
that  slave  State.  Is  it  likely  that  Texan  slave-holders  will  not 
cross  the  line  with  their  property,  or  occupy  territory  they  claim 
as  their  own  ? 

The  settlers  in  Deseret  have  formed  a  constitution  virtually 
allowing  slavery,  by  not  prohibiting  it.  The  gold  diggers  in 
California  are  concentrated  far  north  of  3G°  30' ;  the  city  of  San 
Francisco  is  also  north  of  that  line,  while  south  of  it  is  a  large 
area,  where  there  is  little  to  obstruct  the  introduction  of  slavery. 
Under  these  circumstances,  there  are  probably  very  few  men  in 
Congress  who  would  dare  on  their  oaths,  to  affirm  the  opinion 
expressed  by  Mr.  Clay.  That  opinion  is  at  best  a  calculation  of 
chances  ;  a  calculation  on  which  no  man  would  hazard  a  thousand 
dollars ;  yet  this  miserable  calculation  is  offered  to  the  North  as 


558 

a  compensation  for  the  surrender  of  all  the  political  and  moral 
blessings  which  the  Proviso  would  SECURE. 

Mr.  Clay  utterly  demolishes  Gen.  Cass's  argument  against 
the  constitutionality  of  the  Proviso,  and  affirms  most  positively 
the  right  of  Congress  to  prohibit  slavery  in  the  territories.  But 
how  stands  the  question  of  duty  and  moral  consistency  between 
these  two  gentlemen?  Undeniably  in  favor  of  the  General. 
He  has  not,  indeed,  undertaken  to  solve  the  nice  and  difficult 
question,  whether  human  bondage  is  a  curse  or  a  blessing.  He 
is  sensibly  alive  to  the  atrocity  of  flogging  two  or  three  Hunga 
rian  women,  but  makes  no  comment  on  laws  which  subject  thou 
sands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  American  women  to  the  lash. 
He  calls  upon  the  nation  to  express  its  indignation  at  the  exe 
cution  of  a  few  Hungarian  insurgents  taken  with  arms  in  their 
hands,  but  gives  no  opinion  how  far  it  would  be  right  or  wrong 
to  shoot  certain  of  his  own  countrymen,  if  taken  in  revolt  against 
worse  than  Austrian  oppression.  But  he  contends  that  what 
ever  may  be  the  moral  character  of  slavery,  Congress  has  no 
constitutional  right  to  prohibit  it,  and  therefore  ought  not  to  pro 
hibit  it.  On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Clay  frankly  declares  that 
slavery  is  wrong,  "  a  grievous  wrong,"  that  to  propagate  slavery 
is  to  propagate  WRONG.  He  affirms  the  constitutional  power  of 
Congress  to  prohibit  this  propagation  of  wrong,  and  then  calls 
upon  Congress  to  permit  slave-holders  to  propagate  this  wrong 
when  and  where  they  please  over  the  whole  wide  extent  of  our 
conquered  territory,  with  the  single  exception  of  what  may  be 
included  within  the  State  of  California.  Before  God  and  man, 
Gen.  Cass's  conclusion  from  his  premises  is  justified,  while  the 
conclusion  drawn  by  Mr.  Clay  from  his  premises  is  condemned 
as  hostile  to  morality  and  humanity. 

3.  This  resolution  merely  gives  to  Texas  more  territory  than 
she  is  entitled  to,  and  less  than  she  demands,  and  is  so  far  a  com 
promise  of  territorial  claims ;  but  in  no  degree  a  compromise 
between  the  friends  and  enemies  of  human  rights,  since  what  is 
to  be  taken  from  Texas  is  to  be  immediately  thrown  open  to 
the  slave-holders. 


MR.  CLAY'S  COMPROMISE.  559 

4.  Texas  had,  before  annexation,  pledged  her  duties  on  for 
eign  commerce  as  security  to  certain  creditors.     These  duties, 
by  annexation  were  surrendered  to  the  United  States.      Mr. 
Clay  proposes  that  the  United  States  shall  assume  the  debts  due 
to  these  creditors  if  Texas  will  relinquish  her  claims  on  New 
Mexico.     If  justice  requires  the  nation  to  assume  these  debts, 
their  assumption  ought  not  to  depend  on  the  cession  of  territory 
by  Texas.     If  in  justice  we  do  not  owe  these  debts,  their  pay 
ment  by  us  will    in  fact  be  a  gratuity  to  Texas  for  the  relin- 
quishment  of  one  of  the  most  impudent  and  fraudulent  claims 
ever  made.     We  have  official  information,  communicated  by 
General  Jackson  to  Congress,  that  the  Texans,  when  defining 
the  boundaries  of  their  new-born  republic,  at  first  determined  to 
include  California ;  and  beyond  all  question  they  had  then  as 
much  right  to  San  Francisco  as  they  now  have  to  Santa  Fe. 
The   proposition  of  Mr.   Clay  is   therefore  to  pay  Texas  for 
territory  to  which  he  admits  she  has  no  title,  and  then  to  throw 
open  the  territory  so  purchased  to  the  slave-holders.     In  this,  I 
can  see  no  concession  to  the  North. 

5.  Congress  is  to  declare  it  inexpedient  to  abolish  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  except  with  the  assent  of  Maryland 
and  the  people  of  the  District,  and  making  compensation  to  the 
slave-holders.      The  unlimited  power  of  Congress  to   abolish 
slavery  in  the  district  is  fully  conceded,  yet  he  calls  on  Congress 
not  to  do,  what  many  of  its  members  and  vast  multitudes  of 
their  constituents  believe  it  their  moral  duty  to  do.      In  this 
proposal  I  can  find  no  other  compromise  but  that  of  conscience. 

C.  The  next  proposal  is  to  prohibit  the  importation  of  slaves 
into  the  District  for  sale.  In  other  words,  the  inhabitants  are 
to  have  a  monopoly  of  the  trade  in  human  beings.  These  good 
people  are  not  to^be  deprived  of  the  privilege  of  importing  as 
many  slaves  as  they  may  want  for  their  own  use,  nor  of  selling 
husbands,  and  wives,  and  children,  to  be  transported  to  the  ex 
tremities  of  the  Union ;  but  foreign  traders  shall  no  longer  be 
permitted  to  glut  the  Washington  market  with  their  wares.  The 
moment  the  resolution  passes,  human  chattels  will  rise  in  value 


560  JAY'S  WORKS. 

in  the  capital  of  our  Republic.  I  object  not  to  the  abolition  of 
the  trade,  since  it  will  remove  one  of  the  many  abominations 
with  which  slavery  has  disgraced  the  seat  of  our  national  gov 
ernment  ;  but  I  deny  that  the  proposition  involves  the  slightest 
concession  on  the  part  of  the  slave-holders.  Says  Mr.  Clay 
himself,  "Almost  every  slave-holding  State  in  the  Union  has  ex 
ercised  its  power  to  prohibit  the  introduction  of  slaves  as  mer 
chandise."  The  power  is  exercised  or  not,  according  to  conve 
nience,  and  as  it  is  thought  most  profitable  to  breed  or  to  import 

slaves. 

* 

7.  We  now  come  to  a  grand  specific  for  giving  ease  to  north 
ern  consciences,  for  allaying  all  irritation,  and  for  restoring  a 
general  healthful  action  throughout  the  present  morbid  system 
of  the  confederacy !  I  will  give  the  recipe  in  full :  "Resolved, 
That  more  effectual  provision  ought  to  be  made  by  law  for  the 
restitution  and  delivery  of  persons  bound  to  service  or  labor  in 
any  State,  who  may  escape  into  any  other  State  or  territory  of 
this  Union."  That  I  may  not  be  accused  of  injustice  to  Mr. 
Clay  in  my  subsequent  remarks,  I  will  quote  from  his  speech  on 
this  point :  "  I  do  not  say,  sir,  that  a  private  individual  is  obliged 
to  make  the  tour  of  his  whole  State,  in  order  to  assist  the  owner 
of  a  slave  to  recover  his  property ;  but  I  do  say,  if  he  is  present 
when  the  owner  of  a  slave  is  about  to  assert  his  rights  and  regain 
possession  of  his  property,  that  he  and  every  one  present,  whether 
officer  or  agent  of  the  State  government,  or  private  individual, 
is  bound  to  assist  in  the  execution  of  the  laws  of  their  country." 
"  I  will  go  with  the  farthest  senator  from  the  South  in  this  body 
to  make  penal  laws  to  impose  the  heaviest  sanctions  upon  the 
recovery  of  fugitive  slaves,  and  the  restoration  of  them  to  their 
owners." 

Such  is  the  panacea,  and  such  is  the  manner  in  which  our 
medical  adviser  proposes  to  administer  it.  He  must  not  be 
surprised  should  some  difficulty  be  experienced  in  compelling 
the  patient  to  swallow  the  draught. 

Mr.  Clay  has  long  been  a  favorer  of  those  field  sports  in 
which  the  prey  is  MAN,  and  he  has  the  merit,  it  is  believed,  of 


MR.  CLAY'S  COMPROMISE.  561 

being  the  first  to  conceive  the  grand  idea  of  securing  a  national 
intercommunity  in  these  sports,  b  j  means  of  international  treaties. 
So  early  as  the  19th  June,  1826,  as  Secretary  of  State,  he  pro 
posed  to  the  British  government  to  throw  the  Canadas  open  for 
this  sport,  and  in  return,  to  British  sportsmen  should  be  accorded 
the  privilege  of  hunting  "West  India  negroes  throughout  the 
whole  extent  of  the  American  Republic.  But  John  Bull  rejected 
the  tendered  reciprocity,  and  churlishly  replied,  "  The  law  of 
Parliament  gave  freedom  to  every  slave  who  effected  his  landing 
on  British  ground." 

About  the  same  time  we  requested  from  Mexico  the  boon  of 
hunting  negroes  over  her  wide  area.  The  desired  favor  was  de 
nied,  but  we  have  since  forcibly  added  almost  half  her  territory 
to  our  own  hunting  grounds.  Of  all  the  game  laws  in  existence, 
that  of  1793,  which  regulates  the  chase  of  negroes,  is  the  most 
horrible ;  yet  Mr.  Clay  is  dissatisfied  with  it,  and  calls  upon 
Congress  to  make  it  "more  effectual,"  and  of  course  more  hor 
rible.  Should  a  Virginian  come  to  New  York  in  search  of  his 
horse,  and  find  him  in  possession  of  another,  who  claims  him  as 
his  property,  how  is  he  to  recover  the  animal  ?  Only  by  process 
of  law,  and  that  process  requires  that  a  jury  of  twelve  impar 
tial  men,  drawn  by  lot,  shall  pass  upon  the  conflicting  claims. 
Neither  party  has  any  choice  in  selecting  the  jury,  nor  can 
either  establish  his  claim  by  his  own  evidence.  But  if  the  Vir 
ginian  is  hunting  a  MAN,  and  sees  one  that  will  serve  his  pur 
pose,  and  who  will  fetch  a  thousand  dollars  in  the  southern  mar 
ket,  but  who  claims  to  belong  to  himself,  how  is  he  to  secure 
him  ?  Why,  he  may  catch  his  MAN  as  well  as  he  can,  and  with 
out  warrant  may  carry  him  before  any  justice  of  the  peace  whom 
for  sufficient  reasons  he  may  think  proper  to  select,  and  swear 
that  the  MAN  he  has  caught  is  his,  and  the  justice  may  surrender 
the  MAN  to  perpetual  bondage,  degradation,  and  misery.  Vari 
ous  officers  besides  justices  are  authorized  to  act,  so  that  the 
Virginian  has  a  wide  choice.  Surely  this  is  hunting  made  easy 
by  law ;  but  it  is  not  found  so  easy  in  practice.  Latterly,  vari 
ous  States  have  prohibited  their  oivn  officers  from  assisting  in 
the  chase  of  human  beings,  and  citizens  rarely  lend  any  unpaid 
48 


562  JAY'S  WORKS. 

assistance.  Hence  a  new  game  law  is  deemed  needful,  and  Mr, 
Clay,  as  we  have  seen,  is  pledged  to  go  with  "the  farthest 
southern  senator,"  the  most  devoted  lover  of  the  sport,  to  make 
it  effectual.  The  Judiciary  Committee  have  accordingly  reported 
a  bill  now  before  the  Senate.  "  I  agree,"  said  Mr.  Mason,  one 
of  the  farthest  southern  senators,  in  his  speech  on  this  bill  (28th 
January,)  "  I  agree  that  the  Federal  Government  has  no  power 
to  impose  duties  of  any  kind  upon  officers  of  State  governments  as 
such."  Of  course,  the  obligation  imposed  by  the  law  of  17937 
upon  justices  of  the  peace  and  other  State  officers,  to  catch 
slaves,  are  void,  and  our  northern  Legislatures,  it  is  admitted, 
have  a  right  to  prohibit  them  from  participating  in  slave  hunts. 
To  obviate  this  difficulty,  it  becomes  necessary  to  select  other 
than  State  officers  to  adjudicate  upon  questions  of  higher  import 
than  any,  with  the  single  exception  of  life  and  death,  that  ever 
exercise  the  talents,  learning,  virtue,  and  independence  of  the 
most  august  tribunals  of  any  civilized  country.  And  who  are 
the  grave  and  reverend  judges  appointed  by  this  bill  to  sit  in 
judgment  on  the  liberty  or  bondage  of  native-born  Americans  ? 
Among  these  judges  are  TWENTY  THOUSAND  POSTMASTERS  ! 
Each  one  of  these  new  judges  is  authorized  to  adjudge  any  man, 
woman,  or  child,  black  or  white,  to  be  a  vendible  chattel ;  and 
this  judgment  is  to  be  founded  on  any  proof  that  may  be  satis 
factory  to  said  postmaster,  in  the  words  of  the  bill  "  either  by 
oral  testimony  or  by  affidavit,"  nor  is  the  testimony  either  oral 
or  by  affidavit  of  the  interested  claimant  excluded ;  and  from 
this  judgment  there  is  no  appeal !  Slavery  is  no  longer  confined 
to  one  color.  The  southern  papers  abound  with  advertisements 
offering  rewards  for  fugitive  slaves,  containing  the  caution,  that 
the  fugitive  will  probably  attempt  to  pass  for  a  white  person. 
A  few  years  since  a  Maryland  slave-holder  caught  in  Philadel 
phia  a  white  girl  (Mary  Gilmore),  whom  he  claimed  as  his 
slave.  The  case  was  brought  before  a  Pennsylvania  judge,  and 
occupied  two  days,  and  it  was  proved  by  most  abundant,  over 
whelming  evidence,  that  the  alleged  slave  was  the  orphan  daugh 
ter  of  POOR  IRISH  PARENTS.  The  mother  had  died  in  the 
Philadelphia  hospital,  and  the  daughter  had  never  been  in  Mary- 


MR.  CLAY'S  COMPROMISE.  563 

land.  By  a  pending  amendment  to  this  bill,  every  man  and 
woman  who,  prompted  by  the  holiest  impulses  of  our  nature, 
shall  "  harbor  or  conceal"  the  prey  from  the  hunter,  is  to  be 
visited  with  fine  and  imprisonment.  A  few  days  after  Mr.  Clay 
introduced  his  resolutions,  Bruin  and  Hill,  slave-traders  in  Alex 
andria,  wrote  a  letter,  since  published  in  the  newspapers,  stating 
for  the  information  of  a  free  MOTHER  in  New  York  who  wished 
to  redeem  her  DAUGHTER  from  bondage,  that  they  cannot  afford 
to  sell  "the  girl  Emily  for  less  than  EIGHTEEN  HUNDRED  DOL 
LARS."  Why  this  prodigious  price  ?  They  add,  "  We  have  two 
or  three  offers  for  Emily  from  gentlemen  from  the  South.  She 
Is  said  to  be  the  finest  looking  woman  in  this  country." 

Should  this  devoted  victim  escape  from  her  keepers,  and  be 
afterwards  found  concealed  in  her  mother's  house,  not  only  is 
she  to  be  carried  back  and  subjected  to  the  fate  intended  for  her, 
but  the  MOTHER  is  liable  by  the  present  bill  to  be  sentenced  to 
pay  a  fine  of  five  hundred  dollars  to  the  United  States,  to  pay 
Messrs.  Bruin  and  Hill  one  thousand  dollars  for  damages,  and 
foe  imprisoned  six  months.  We  hope,  for  Mr.  Clay's  reputation, 
no  "  farthest  senator  from  the  south "  will  ask  for  heavier  pen 
alties,  for  if  he  does,  Mr.  Clay  is  pledged  to  vote  for  "the 
heaviest  sanctions "  that  may  be  proposed.  But  suppose  this 
poor  girl  should  find  her  way  to  Peekskill,  instead  of  New 
York,  and  in  your  absence,  with  bursting  heart,  ask  to  be  shel 
tered  in  your  house  from  her  pursuers.  Can  you  for  a  single 
moment  admit  the  possibility,  that  your  wife,  the  mother  of  your 
children,  could,  through  fear  of  the  law,  so  unsex  herself,  as  to 
turn  the  trembling  fugitive  into  the  street,  to  be  caught  by  the 
hunters  ?  A  thousand  times  rather  would  you  see  the  partner 
of  your  bosom  enduring  Mr.  Clay's  "  heaviest  sanctions,"  than 
bringing  ignominy  upon  herself,  and  covering  her  husband  and 
children  with  shame  and  confusion  of  face,  by  committing  a 
crime  so  foul  and  damnable.  Mr.  Mason,  in  his  speech,  insists 
upon  the  right  of  the  hunter,  "  to  enter  peaceably  any  inclosure  or 
DWELLING  where  such  slave  may  be  found,  for  the  purpose  of 
taking  him."  Should  this  asserted  right  be  incorporated  into 
t!i£  compromise  bill,  then  may  southern  ruffians  and  northern 


564  JAY'S  WORKS. 

doughfaces  ere  long  be  roaming  through  our  bed-rooms  and 
ransacking  our  closets  in  search  of  prey.  Should  an  attempt 
be  made  to  enforce  "the  heaviest  sanctions"  for  which  Mr. 
Clay  is  ready  to  vote,  he  may  be  assured  the  prisons  in  New 
York  and  New  England  are  too  few  to  hold  the  vast  multi 
tudes  of  men  and  women  who  would  willingly  tenant  them, 
rather  than  peril  their  souls  by  betraying  the  fugitive  or  assist 
ing  in  his  capture.  Mr.  Clay  very  kindly  declines  requiring 
"  a  private  individual  to  make  the  tour  of  his  whole  State "  in 
search  of  a  slave,  but  he  insists  that  all  who  are  present  when 
the  game  is  started,  ought  to  follow  the  hounds.  Could  he 
but  enforce  this  obligation,  we  should  have  some  grand  turnouts 
in  New  York  and  New  England,  some  like  the  one  fancied 
by  the  poet : 

"  Gay  luck  to  our  hunters  !  how  nobly  they  ride, 
In  the  glow  of  their  zeal  and  the  strength  of  their  pride  !  — 
The  priest  with  his  cassock  flung  back  on  the  wind, 
Just  screening  the  politic  statesman  behind  — 
The  saint  and  the  sinner,  with  cursing  and  prayer  — 
The  drunk  and  the  sober  ride  merrily  there. 
Oh !  goodly  and  grand  is  our  hunting  to  see, 
In  this  'land  of  the  brave  and  this  home  of  the  free  ! ' 
Right  merrily  hunting  the  black  man,  whose  sin 
Is  the  curl  of  his  hair  and  the  hue  of  his  skin  ! 
So  speed  to  their  hunting  o'er  mountain  and  glen, 
Through  canebreak  and  forest  —  the  hunting  of  men! " 

But  the  Constitution  !  This  instrument  declares  in  substance, 
that  the  fugitive  slave  shall  be  delivered  up ;  but  Mr.  Clay,  I 
believe,  is  the  first  lawyer  who  has  contended  that  the  obligation 
of  delivery  rests  upon  "  private  individuals."  Even  Mr.  Mason, 
in  his  speech,  insists  that  the  mandate  to  deliver  up  is  "addressed 
to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State  into  which  the  fugitive  may 
escape."  Of  course,  individual  citizens,  as  such,  are  under  no 
constitutional  obligation  to  volunteer  to  catch  slaves.  But  sup 
pose  a  positive  law  should  enjoin  each  individual  to  betray  or 
aid  in  capturing  the  fugitive  —  the  question  put  by  the  apostles, 
when  legally  forbidden  to  teach  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  would 
then  recur :  "  Whether  it  be  right  in  the  sight  of  God  to  hearken 


MR.  CLAY'S  COMPROMISE.  565 

unto  you  more  than  unto  God,  judge  ye."  It  is  not  merely  the 
right,  but  the  duty  of  a  Christian  to  refuse  an  active  obedience 
to  any  and  every  law  of  man,  which  he  believes  contravenes 
the  commands  of  his  Maker ;  and  then,  like  the  apostles,  to 
offer  no  forcible  resistance  to  the  penalties  attached  to  his  dis 
obedience. 

Mr.  Clay  may  be  assured,  that  the  bill  of  pains  and  penalties 
promised  in  his  seventh  resolution,  will  not  have  the  composing 
influence  he  anticipates.  Filling  our  prisons  with  pious, 
benevolent,  kind-hearted  men  and  woman,  will  have  little  effect 
in  suppressing  agitation.  In  his  compromising  anodyne,  Mr. 
Clay  has  omitted  an  important  iugredient.  Ample  provision  is 
to  be  made  for  the  recovery  of  southern  slaves,  but  none  for  the 
recovery  of  NORTHERN  CITIZENS.  If  the  Constitution  gives  the 
southern  planter  a  right  to  seize  his  slave  in  New  York  or 
Massachusetts,  equally  explicit  is  the  grant  to  citizens  of  those 
States  to  enjoy  all  the  rights  of  citizenship  in  South  Carolina. 
Yet,  if  certain  of  our  citizens,  freeholders  and  electors  at  home, 
think  proper  to  visit  that  State,  a  prison  is  the  only  dwelling 
they  are  permitted  to  occupy ;  and  should  the  State  to  which 
they  belong  send  an  agent  to  inquire  why  they  are  immured  in 
a  jail,  and  to  bring  their  case  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  he  is  compelled  to  flee  at  the  hazard  of  his  life ! 

8.  The  last  item  of  this  grand  compromise  is  virtually  a  guar 
anty  that  the  American  slave-trade,  vile  and  loathsome  as  it  is, 
shall  be  held  sacred  from  prohibition  or  obstruction  by  the  Fed 
eral  Government  for  all  time  to  come.  The  stars  and  stripes  shall 
forever  protect  each  coasting  vessel  that  shall  be  freighted  with 
human  misery  and  despair,  and  manacled  conies  shall,  without 
molestation,  be  driven  across  the  continent  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific.  The  slave-trade  in  the  District,  that  is,  in  one  single 
market,  Mr.  Clay  pronounces  "detestable,"  and  talks  with 
horror  of  "  the  corteges  which  pass  along  our  avenues  of  manacled 
human  beings."  But  why  this  sudden  outburst  of  indignation 
against  a  lawful  commerce  ?  Is  it  dishonorable  to  sell  merchan 
dise  ?  Has  not  Mr.  Clay  himself  proclaimed,  "  that  is  property 
48« 


566  -  JAY'S 

which  the  law  makes  property  ?  "  Why  does  he  dishonor  the 
Washington  man-merchants  ?  Is  it  base  to  buy  and  sell  human 
beings  ?  Mr.  Clay  forgets  that  this  "  detestable  trade  "  is,  in 
fact,  supported  by  the  gentlemen  breeders  who  sell,  and  the 
gentlemen  planters  who  buy.  But  this  trade  which  is  so 
"  detestable,"  and  these  corteges  which  are  so  horrible  on  a  very 
little  scale,  are  now  to  assume  a  national  importance,  protected 
and  sanctioned  by  the  government  of  the  whole  Republic  ! 

Such,  sir,  is  the  magnanimous  compromise  which  so  many  of 
our  Whig  and  Democratic  politicians,  now  that  the  elections  are 
over,  and  the  solemn  pledges  made  in  favor  of  the  Wilmot 
Proviso  supposed  to  be  forgotten,  are  willing  to  accept  as  a 
mighty  boon  to  human  rights,  and  a  mighty  barrier  against  the 
further  encroachments  of  the  slave  power.  In  my  ears  the  only 
language  addressed  by  these  eight  resolutions,  to  the  North,  is 
the  cry  of  the  horseleech  —  GIYE,  GIVE.  No  test  can  detect  in 
them,  no  microscope  can  make  visible  the  most  minute  conces 
sion  to  human  liberty.  Not  one  single  inch  of  territory  does  the 
proposed  compromise  secure  from  slavery  that  is  not  already 
rescued  from  its  power.  Not  one  single  human  being  will  it 
save  from  bondage. 

The  extension  of  the  Missouri  line  to  the  Pacific  would  at 
least  have  rendered  all  on  the  north  of  it  free  soil ;  but,  says 
Mr.  Clay,  most  truly,  although  with  a  frankness  almost  insult 
ing  to  the  North,  "  I  say,  sir,  in  my  place  here,  that  it  is  much 
better  for  the  SOUTH  that  the  whole  subject  should  be  open  on 
both  sides  an  imaginary  line  of  36°  30',  than  that  slavery  should 
be  interdicted  positively  north  of  36°  30'  with  freedom  to  admit 
or  exclude  it  south  o/*36°  30',  at  the  will  of  the  people!" 

But,  Mr.  Clay  exclaimed,  "  No  earthly  power  could  induce 
me  to  vote  for  the  positive  introduction  of  slavery  south  or  north 
of  that  line,"  and  at  this  heroic  avowal  the  galleries  applauded. 
But  the  galleries  are  not  deeply  versed  in  southern  tactics. 
Mr.  Clay  need  apprehend  no  coercion  to  extort  his  reluctant 
vote  for  a  purpose  no  one  desires  or  demands.  The  South  have, 
with  one  voice,  denied  the  power  of  Congress  either  to  prohibit 
or  establish  slavery  in  the  territories.  Said  Mr.  King,  of 


MR.  CLAY'S  COMPROMISE.  567 

Alabama,  in  reply,  "  We  ask  no  act  of  Congress  to  carry  slavery 
anywhere.  I  believe  we  (Congress)  have  just  as  much  right  to 
prohibit  slavery  in  the  territories  as  to  carry  it  there.  We  have 
no  right  to  do  one  or  the  other."  Other  southern  senators 
avowed  their  concurrence  in  the  doctrine  advanced  by  Mr. 
King.  Hence  Mr  Clay's  defiance  of  any  power  on  earth  to 
make  him  do  what  nobody  wants  him  to  do,  was,  at  least,  a 
rhetorical  flourish. 

But  if  this  pretended  compromise  is,  as  I  contend,  a  full  and 
unqualified  surrender  of  all  the  demands  of  the  North,  why  did 
certain  ultra  senators  object  to  it  ?  A  show  of  resistance  might 
have  been  deemed  politic,  as  tending  to  make  northern  men 
suppose  there  must  be  something  granted  to  them,  although 
they  could  not  tell  what.  It  may  also  suit  the  party  purposes, 
of  some  to  prolong  the  present  agitation,  that  they  may  manu 
facture  more  patriotism  for  the  southern  market ;  and,  lastly,  if 
any  really  wish  to  form  a  separate  republic,  in  which  they 
expect  to  have  more  power  than  they  now  enjoy,  they  will  of 
course  reject  all  concessions,  however  great.  But  it  is  incredi 
ble  that  the  mere  slave-holders,  the  men  who  are  only  anxious 
to  open  new  markets  for  the  sale  of  their  stock,  and  to  acquire 
more  votes  in  Congress,  should  be  averse  to  a  proposition  that 
offers  them  all  they  have  ever  asked,  and  all  that  Congress  can 
give  them,  with  the  exception  of  the  suppression  of  the  right  of 
petition,  and  the  censorship  of  the  post-office,  and  these  are 
not  now  in  issue. 

But  we  are  told  that  unless  we  yield  to  the  demands  of  the 
slave-holders,  they  will  dissolve  the  Union.  And  what  are 
these  demands,  which  Mr.  Clay  admits  we  have  full  right  to 
refuse  ?  Why,  that  a  small  body  of  men,  not  probably  exceed 
ing  100,000,*  shall  be  at  liberty,  for  their  own  aggrandizement, 
to  blight  with  the  curse  of  slavery  our  vast  possessions  south  of 
36°  30',  and  whatever  portion  of  Mexico  it  shall  hereafter  be 
found  convenient  to  seize.  Thus,  at  a  time  when  cruelty  and 

*  A  late  census  in  Kentucky  reveals  the  fact,  that  the  slave-holders  in 
that  State  own  on  an  average  twenty-two  slaves.  Should  this  average  be 
applied  to  the  whole  slave  region,  the  number  of  masters,  according  to  the 
census  of  1840,  cannot  exceed  117,000  ! 


568  JAY'S  WORKS. 

oppression  are  elsewhere  giving  way  before  the  increasing 
intelligence  and  morality  of  the  age,  we,  the  Model  Republic, 
are  to  be  the  instrument  of  extending  over  illimitable  regions 
now  free,  a  despotism  more  accursed  than  any  other  known 
throughout  the  civilized  world, —  a  despotism  that  not  only 
enslaves  the  body,  but  crushes  the  intellect  through  which  man 
is  enabled  to  distinguish  good  from  evil, —  a  despotism  that 
annihilates  all  rights,  sets  at  naught  all  the  affections  of  the 
heart,  and  converts  a  being  made  in  the  image  of  God  into 
a  soulless  machine.  Tell  me  not  of  exceptions, —  of  some  lucky 
chattel,  like  Mr.  Clay's  negro,  referred  to  in  his  speech,  who  in 
his  master's  well-stored  kitchen  hugs  his  chain,  laughs,  and 
grows  fat.  He  is  but  a  vendible  commodity,  and  to-morrow's 
sun  may  behold  him  toiling  under  the  lash,  his  wife  given  to 
another,  and  his  children  with  pigs  and  mules  sold  at  auction  to 
the  highest  bidder.  Tell  me  not  of  exceptions, —  "  the  kind 
owner  "  may  at  any  moment  be  exchanged  by  death  or  debts, 
for  the  hardened,  remorseless  taskmaster,  and  the  law  sanctions 
every  atrocity  perpetrated  upon  the  slave.*  No,  my  dear  sir,  I 
cannot  give  my  consent,  and  I  hope  it  will  not  be  given  for  me 
by  my  representative,  to  curse  a  vast  empire  with  such  an  in 
stitution,  and  to  doom  unborn  millions  to  its  unutterable 
abominations,  even  to  save  our  southern  brethren  from  the  sin 
and  folly  of  founding  a  new  Republic  (!)  upon  the  denial  of 
human  rights,  and  of  rendering  themselves  a  byword,  a  proverb, 
and  a  reproach  among  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  I  value  the 
favor  of  my  God  and  the  salvation  of  my  soul  too  much  to  take 

*0ur  doughfaces  are  always  complaining  that  their  employers  are  slan 
dered  at  the  North.  Let  the  employers  speak  for  themselves.  In  Dev. 
Reports,  (North  Carolina,)  p.  263,  1829,  we  find  the  case  of  The  State  vs. 
Mann.  The  defendant  attempted  to  flog  a  woman  slave  whom  he  had  hired ; 
she  retreated ;  he  ordered  her  to  come  to  him,  but  she  continuing  to  re 
treat,  he  seized  his  gun,  fired  at  and  wounded  her.  For  this  he  was  in 
dicted.  The  Court  held  that  he  who  hires  a  slave  is,  for  the  time  being, 
invested  with  all  the  powers  of  the  owner  himself  to  enforce  obedience,  and 
that  the  indictment  could  not  be  sustained.  Said  Judge  Ruifin,  "  The  power 
of  the  master  must  be  absolute,  to  render  the  submission  of  the  slave  perfect. 
I  most  sincerely  confess  my  sense  of  the  harshness  of  this  proposition.  I 
feel  it  as  deeply  as  any  man  can  ;  and  as  a  principle  of  moral  right,  every  man 
in  his  retirement  must  repudiate  it.  But  in  the  actual  state  of  things  it  must 
be  so  —  there  is  no  remedy.  THIS  DISCIPLINE  BELONGS  TO  SLAVERY." 
Verily,  we  are  the  people  to  lecture  Austria  ! 


MR.  CLAY'S  COMPROMISE.  569 

part  or  lot  in  such  great  wickedness.  Most  fully  do  I  agree 
with  Mr.  Clay,  that  Congress  has  no  more  constitutional  au 
thority  over  slavery  in  the  States,  than  in  the  Island  of  Cuba ; 
and  most  fully  do  I  agree  with  the  admission  in  his  speech,  but 
not  to  be  found  in  his  resolutions,  of  the  right  of  Congress  to 
exclude  slavery  from  the  conquered  territories.  Hence,  in  my 
opinion,  the  refusal  to  exercise  this  right,  even  to  preserve  the 
Union,  would  be  a  CRIME  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man.  I  en 
tertain  no  apprehension  of  the  severance  of  the  Union  for  this 
cause,  but  should  the  few  slave-holders  and  the  vast  multitude  of 
southern  people  who  have  no  interest  in  slavery,  in  their  mad 
ness  separate  from  us,  upon  them  will  rest  the  sin,  and  upon 
them  and  their  children  will  fall  its  punishment.  Let  us  do 
what  God  commands,  and  leave  to  HIM  the  consequences. 

Yours  truly, 

WILLIAM  JAY. 


A   LETTER 

TO    THE    HON.    SAMUEL   A.    ELIOT,    REPRESENTATIVE 
CONGRESS  FROM  THE  CITY  OF  BOSTON,  IN  REPLY 
TO  HIS  APOLOGY  FOR  VOTING  FOR  THE 
FUGITIVE    SLAVE    BILL. 


1851. 


SIR:  — 

AN  English  courtier  procured  a  colonial  judgeship,  for  a 
young  dependant  wholly  ignorant  of  law.  The  new  functionary, 
on  parting  with  his  patron,  received  from  him  the  following  sage 
advice,  —  "  Be  careful  never  to  assign  reasons,  for  whether  your 
judgments  be  right  or  wrong,  your  reasons  will  certainly  be 
bad."  You  have  cause  to  regret  that  some  friend  had  not  been 
equally  provident  of  your  reputation,  and  intimated  that  it  was 
only  expected  of  you  to  vote  for  Mr.  Webster's  measures,  but 
by  no  means  to  assist  him  in  vindicating  them.  You  did,  indeed, 
vote  precisely  as  those  who  procured  your  nomination  intended 
you  should ;  yet,  on  your  return  home,  you  found  your  name 
had  become  a  byword  and  a  reproach  in  your  native  State. 
Another  election  approached,  but  you  declined  submitting  your 
recent  course  to  the  judgment  of  the  electors,  and  withdrew 
from  the  canvass.  But  although  the  people  were  thus  prevented 
from  voting  against  you,  they  persisted  in  speaking  and  writing 
against  you.  Anxious  to  relieve  yourself  from  the  load  of 
obloquy  by  which  you  were  oppressed,  in  an  evil  hour  you  rashly 


572  JAY'S  WORKS. 

appealed  to  the  public  through  the  columns  of  a  newspaper,  and 
gave  the  "  reasons  "  of  your  vote  for  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law. 
You  had  a  high  and  recent  example  of  the  kind  of  logic  suited 
to  your  case.  You  might  have  indulged  in  transcendental  non 
sense,  and  talked  about  the  climate,  soil,  and  scenery  of  New 
England  and  the  wonders  of  physical  geography,  and,  assuming 
that  negroes  were  created  free,  you  might  have  contended  that, 
in  voting  for  a  law  to  catch  and  enslave  them,  you  had  avoided 
the  folly  of  reenacting  the  law  of  God.  Reasons  of  this  sort, 
you  and  others  had  declared,  "  had  convinced  the  understanding 
and  touched  the  conscience  of  the  nation."  Instead  of  following 
an  example  so  illustrious  and  successful,  you  assign  "  reasons  " 
so  very  commonplace,  that  the  most  ordinary  capacity  can 
understand  them,  and  so  feeble,  that  the  slightest  strength  can 
overthrow  them. 

fYour  first  "reason"  is,  that  the  delivery  of  fugitives  is  a 
constitutional  obligation?!  By  this  you  mean,  that,  by  virtue  of 
the  construction  of  a  certain  clause  in  the  Constitution  by  the 
Supreme  Court,  Congress  has  the  power  to  pass  a  law  for  the 
recovery  of  fugitive  slaves.  Well,  sir,  does  this  constitutional 
obligation  authorize  Congress  to  pass  any  law  whatsoever  on  the 
subject,  however  atrocious  and  wicked?  Had  you  voted  for  a 
law  to  prevent  smuggling,  in  which  you  had  authorized  every 
tide-waiter  to  shoot  any  person  suspected  of  having  contraband 
goods  in  his  possession,  would  it  have  been  a  good  "  reason  "  for 
such  an  atrocity,  that  the  collection  of  duties  was  "  a  constitu 
tional  obligation  ? "  You  are  condemned  for  voting  for  an 
arbitrary,  detestable,  diabolical  law,  —  one  that  tramples  upon 
the  rights  of  conscience,  outrages  the  feelings  of  humanity,  dis 
cards  the  rules  of  evidence,  levels  all  the  barriers  erected  by 
the  common  law  for  the  protection  of  personal  liberty,  and,  in 
defiance  of  the  Constitution,  and  against  its  express  provisions, 
gives  to  the  courts  the  appointment  of  legions  of  slave-catching 
judges.  And  your  "  reason  "  for  all  this  is,  that  the  delivery  of 
fugitives  is  "  a  constitutional  obligation !  "  The  "  obligation  "  is 
not  in  issue.  Please  to  understand,  sir,  that  it  is  not  denied.  It 
is  for  the  manner  in  which  you  profess  to  have  discharged  the 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL   A.   ELIOT.  573 

obligation,  that  you  are  censured ;  and  be  it  remembered,  that 
not  one  of  the  obnoxious  provisions  of  your  law  is  required  by 
the  Constitution.  You  go  on  and  attempt  to  enlighten  your 
constituents  as  to  the  history  of  this  constitutional  obligation. 
As  the  obligation  affords  you  no  apology  for  the  iniquitous 
features  of  your  law,  its  history  is,  of  course,  mere  surplusage, 
and  serves  no  other  purpose  than  to  divert  the  attention  of  your 
readers  from  yourself.  About  two  thirds  of  your  apology  is 
occupied  with  a  historical  disquisition,  which  has  as  much  to  do 
with  your  vindication  as  the  question  respecting  the  existence  of 
a  lunar  atmosphere.  I  will  not,  however,  withhold  from  you 
whatever  benefit  you  may  derive  from  either  your  logic  or  your 
history,  but  will  give  each  a  fair  and  honest  examination.  You 
inform  the  public  that,  at  the  time  the  Constitution  was  formed, 

"  Slavery  had  been  abolished  in  some  of  the  States,  and  still  existed 
in  others.  Here  seemed  an  insurmountable  incompatibility  of  inter 
ests,  and  nothing  perplexed  the  wise  men  of  that  day — and  they  were 
very  wise  men — so  much  as  this  topic.  At  last  they  agreed  that  the 
new  Constitution  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  that  the  word 
slavery  should  not  be  mentioned  in  it,  and  that  it  should  be  left  to  the 
States  themselves  to  establish,  retain,  or  abolish  it,  just  as  much  after 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  as  before.  But  in  order  to  secure  the 
existence  of  the  institution  to  those  States  who  preferred  it,  it  was 
agreed  that  the  persons  escaping  from  labor  to  which  they  were  bound, 
in  one  commonwealth,  and  found  in  another,  should  be  returned  to 
the  State  from  which  they  had  fled.  The  provision  was  necessary  for 
the  preservation  of  this  interest  in  statu  quo.  It  did  not  extend  slavery. 
It  kept  it  where  it  already  was,  and  where  it  could  not  have  continued 
if  every  slave  who  escaped  North  was  at  once  free  and  irreclaimable. 
The  members  of  the  confederacy  from  the  South  saw  this  distinctly, 
and  deliberately  declared  that  they  could  not  and  would  not  enter  a 
union  with  States  who  would  tempt  away  their  slaves  with  the  pros 
pect  of  immediate  and  permanent  freedom The  Con 
stitution  was  adopted  with  this  provision,  and  it  could  not  have  been 
adopted  without  it." 

Thus  we  learn  from  you,  sir,  that  when  the  Constitution  was 
formed,  "  slavery  had  been  abolished  in  some  of  the  States."  It 
is  a  pity  you  did  not  vouchsafe  to  tell  us  which  of  the  States 
had  thus  early  and  honorably  distinguished  themselves.  Of  the 
thirteen  American  States  in  1787,  how  many,  sir,  had  by  law 
abolished  slavery  ?  NOT  ONE.  Your  "  some  States  '  consisted 
49 


574  JAY'S  WORKS. 

of  MASSACHUSETTS  alone.  And  how  was  slavery  abolished 
there  ?  Not  by  any  express  prohibition  in  her  constitution,  nor 
by  any  act  of  her  Legislature.  Fortunately,  her  constitution, 
like  that  of  most  other  States,  contained  a  general  declaration 
of  human  rights,  somewhat  similar  to  the  "  rhetorical  abstraction  " 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Two  or  three  years  before 
the  Federal  Convention  assembled,  a  young  lawyer,  perceiving 
that  the  declaration  in  the  constitution  had  inadvertently  made 
no  exclusion  of  the  rights  of  men  with  dark  complexions,  brought 
an  action  for  a  slave  against  his  master  for  work  done  and  per 
formed.  An  upright  and  independent  court,  not  having  the  fear 
of  our  southern  brethren  before  their  eyes,  decided  that  the 
slave  was  a  MAN,  and  therefore  entitled  to  the  rights  which  the 
constitution  declared  belonged  to  all  men,  and  gave  judgment 
for  the  plaintiff.  In  this  way,  sir,  was  slavery  abolished  in 
Massachusetts,  and  hence  the  delegates  from  Massachusetts  in 
the  convention  were  the  only  ones  who  represented  a,  free  State. 
And  now,  sir,  what  becomes  of  your  "  insurmountable  incompati 
bility  of  interests  "  arising  from  the  fact  that  "  slavery  had  been 
abolished  in  some  States  and  still  existed  in  others,"  which  you 
tell  us  so  much  perplexed  the  wise  men  of  that  day  ?  We  shall 
see,  sir,  that  on  questions  touching  human  bondage  the  Massa 
chusetts  delegation  seem  to  have  been  slave-holders  in  heart, 
and  did  not  partake  of  the  perplexity  which  troubled  the  wise 
men.  With  the  exception  of  that  delegation,  there  were  not 
probably  half  a  dozen  members  of  the  convention  who  were  not 
slave-holders. 

<Cjtjvould  seem  from  your  historical  review,  that  the  clause  in 
the  Constitution  respecting  fugitive  slaves  was  the  grand  com 
promise  between  the  North  and  the  South,  without  which  "  the 
Constitution  could  not  have  been  adopted;/  and  that  to  this 
clause  we  owe  our  glorious  slave-catching  "tJnion.  You  fortify 
this  wonderful  historical  discovery  by  appealing  to  the  "  delib 
erate  declarations  "  of  southern  members,  that  they  "  would  not 
enter  a  union  with  States  who  would  tempt  away  their  slaves," 
&c.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  you  have  not  deemed  it  expedient 
to  refer  to  the  records  of  these  declarations,  as  other  students  of 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL   A.   ELIOT,  575 

our  constitutional  history  are  wholly  ignorant  of  them.  Suffer 
me,  sir,  to  enter  into  a  few  historical  details,  for  the  purpose  of 
vindicating  the  liberty  I  take  to  differ  with  you  as  to  the  accu 
racy  of  your  statements. 

The  Convention  met  in  Philadelphia,  May,  25,  1787.  On 
the  29th  of  the  same  month,  Mr.  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  sub 
mitted  a  plan  of  government.  It  contained  no  allusion  to 
fugitive  slaves.  On  the  same  day,  Mr.  Charles  Finckney,  of 
South  Carolina,  submitted  another  plan.  This  last  provided 
for  the  surrender  of  fugitive  criminals,  but  was  silent  about 
fugitives  slaves.  On  the  15th  of  June,  Mr.  Patterson,  of  New 
Jersey,  submitted  a  third  plan.  This  also  provided  for  the 
surrender  of  fugitives  from  justice,  but  not  from  bondage.  On 
the  18th,  Mr.  Hamilton  announced  his  plan,  but  the  fugitive 
slave  found  no  place  in  it.  On  the  26th  of  June,  the  Conven 
tion,  having  agreed  on  the  general  features  of  the  proposed 
Constitution  in  the  form  of  resolutions,  referred  them  to  "  a 
committee  of  detail,"  for  the  purpose  of  reducing  them  to  the 
form  of  a  Constitution.  In  this  resolutions,  there  was  not  the 
most  distant  allusion  to  fugitive  slaves.  On  the  6th  of  August, 
the  committee  reported  the  draft  of  a  Constitution,  and  yet, 
strange  as  you  may  deem  it,  the  provision  without  which,  you 
tell  us,  the  Constitution  could  not  have  been  adopted,  was  not  in 
it,  although  there  was  in  it  a  provision  for  the  surrender  of 
fugitive  criminals.  For  three  months  had  the  Convention  been 
in  session,  and  not  one  syllable  had  been  uttered  about  fugitive 
slaves.  At  last,  on  the  29th  of  August,  as  we  learn  from  the 
minutes, 

"  It  was  moved  and  seconded  to  agree  to  the  following  proposition, 
to  be  inserted  after  the  15th  article :  '  If  any  person,  bound  to  service 
or  labor  in  any  of  the  United  States,  shall  escape  into  another  State, 
he  or  she  shall  not  be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor  in  con- 
gequence  of  any  regulation  subsisting  in  the  State  to  which  they 
escape,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  to  the  person  justly  claiming  their 
service  or  labor,'  which  passed  unanimously." 

Really,  sir,  I  find  in  this  record  but  little  evidence  of  the 
perplexity  which  distressed  our  wise  men,  or  of  the  great  com 
promise  between  the  North  and  South,  on  which  you  dwell. 


576  JAY'S  WORKS. 

The  15th  article,  referred  to  above,  was  the  article  providing 
for  the  surrender  of  fugitives  from  justice,  and  this  suggested 
the  idea,  that  it  would  be  well  to  provide,  also,  for  the  surrender 
of  fugitive  slaves.  In  an  assembly  consisting  almost  exclusively 
of  slave-holders,  the  idea  was  exceedingly  relished  ;  and  with 
out  a  word  of  opposition,  the  suggestion  was  unanimously 
adopted.  From  Mr.  Madison's  report  we  learn  that,  the  day 
before,  Messrs.  Butler  and  Pinckney  had  informally  proposed 
that  fugitive  slaves  and  servants  should  be  delivered  up  "  like 
criminals." 

Mr.  Wilson  of  Penn. : — "  This  would  oblige  the  Executive  of  the  State 
to  do  it  at  the  public  expense.  Mr.  Sherman,  of  Conn.,  saw  no  more 
propriety  in  the  public  seizing  and  surrendering  a  slave  or  servant 
than  a  horse."  Madison  Papers,  p.  1447. 

The  subject  was  here  dropped.  The  next  day  the  motion  was 
made  in  form,  and  as  Mr.  Madison  says,  "  agreed  to,  nem.  con." 
From  the  phraseology  of  the  motion,  and  the  objections  of 
Messrs.  Wilson  and  Sherman,  it  was  perfectly  understood  that 
the  obligation  of  delivery  was  imposed  on  the  States,  and  that 
no  power  was  intended  to  be  conferred  on  Congress  to  legislate 
on  the  subject.  Messrs.  Wilson  and  Sherman's  objections 
arose  from  no  moral  repugnance  to  slave-catching,  but  from  the 
inconvenience  they  apprehended  the  State  authorities  would  be 
subjected  to ;  and  Mr.  Wilson  perhaps  spoke  from  experience, 
as  his  own  State  had  at  that  very  time  a  law  for  catching  and 
returning  fugitive  slaves  from  other  States.  The  idea,  therefore, 
that  this  agreement  was  a  compromise  between  the  North  and 
South  is  wholly  imaginary,  and  you,  sir,  must  have  mistaken 
some  recent  fulminations  from  the  southern  chivalry  for  the 
*  deliberate  declarations"  which  you  suppose  were  made  in  the 
Convention.  Believe  me,  sir,  no  members  of  the  Convention 
ever  declared  they  would  not  enter  into  the  Union,  unless  it  was 
agreed  to  surrender  fugitive  slaves,  for  the  obvious  reason,  that 
the  northern  slave-holders  required  no  threats  from  their 
southern  brethren  to  consent  to  a  compact  convenient  to  both. 
It  is  very  true,  sir,  that  there  were  compromises,  and  that  there 
were  "  deliberate  declarations,"  but  they  had  no  reference  to  the 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL    A.    ELIOT.  577 

surrender  of  runaway  slaves.  I  have  pointed  out  your  historical 
mistake,  not  because  it  has  the  remotest  bearing  on  your  justifica 
tion,  but  because  you  seem  to  think  that  it  has. 

(jThe  first  great  compromise  was  between,  not^the  North  and 
the  South,  but  the  small  and  the  large  StatesT^YThe  one  claimed, 
and  the  other  refused,  an  equality  of  suffrage  in  the  national 
legislature.  Jit  was  at  last  agreed,  that  the  suffrage  should  be 
equal  in  one  house,  and  according  to  population  in  the  other. 
This  was  the  first  compromise.  Then  came  the  question,  What 
should  constitute  the  representative  population  ?  The  Southern 
States  had  more  slaves  than  the  Northern,  and  the  former 
insisted  that  slaves  should  be  included  in  the  representative 
population.  This  would  have  given  the  Southern  States  an 
unfair  preponderance  in  Congress.  Moreover,  a  portion  of  the 
Southern  States  were  engaged  in  the  African  slave-trade,  and, 
of  course,  every  slave  landed  on  their  shores  would  increase 
their  political  power  in  Congress.  To  reconcile  the  North  to 
slave  representation,  it  was  offered  that  direct  taxation  should 
be  proportioned  to  representation.  But  the  North  was  reluctant, 
and,  as  usual,  was  bullied  into  a  compromise.  Mr.  Davie,  of 
North  Carolina,  made  a  "  deliberate  declaration : " 

"  He  was  sure  that  North  Carolina  would  never  confederate  on  any 
terms  that  did  not  rate  them  (the  slaves)  at  least  as  three-fifths.  If 
the  Eastern  States  meant,  therefore,  to  exclude  them  (the  slaves) 
altogether,  the  business  was  at  an  end."  Madison  Papers,  p.  1081. 

This  threat,  and  others  like  it,  settled  the  matter.  The  com 
promise,  of  three-fifths  of  the  slaves  to  be  included  in  the  repre 
sentative  population,  was  accepted  on  the  motion  of  a  New 
England  member  ;  and  the  consequence  is,  that  the  slave  States 
have  now  twenty-one  members  in  the  lower  house  of  Congress 
more  than  they  are  entitled  to  by  their  free  population.  This 
was  the  second  compromise.  There  was  still  a  third,  far  more 
wicked  and  detestable,  and  effected  by  the  "  deliberate  declara 
tions  "  of  southern  members.  The  "  committee  of  detail "  has 
been  already  mentioned.  It  consisted  of  Messrs.  Eutledge  of 
South  Carolina,  Randolph  of  Virginia,  Wilson  of  Pennsylvania, 
Ellsworth  of  Connecticut,  and  Gorham  of  Massachusetts.  This 
49* 


578  JAY'S  WORKS. 

committee,  it  will  be  recollected,  were  to  reduce  to  the  form  of  a 
Constitution  the  resolutions  agreed  on  by  the  Convention. 
Neither  in  the  resolutions  themselves,  nor  in  the  discussions 
which  preceded  their  adoption,  had  any  reference  been  made  to 
a  guaranty  for  the  continuance  of  the  African  slave-trade. 
Nevertheless,  this  committee,  of  their  own  will  and  pleasure, 
inserted  in  their  draft  the  following  clause : 

"  No  tax  or  duty  shall  be  laid  by  the  legislature  on  articles  exported 
from  any  State,  nor  on  the  migration  or  importation  of  such  persons  as 
the  several  States  shall  think  proper  to  admit,  nor  shall  such  migration 
or  importation  be  prohibited" 

To  understand  the  cunning  wickedness  of  this  clause,  it  must 
be  recollected  that  Congress  was  to  have  power  to  regulate  for 
eign  commerce,  and  commerce  between  the  States ;  and  hence 
it  might,  at  a  future  time,  suppress  both  the  foreign  and  domestic 
commerce  in  human  flesh,  or  it  might  burden  this  commerce 
with  duties.  Hence  this  artfully  expressed  perpetual  restriction 
on  the  power  of  Congress  to  interfere  with  the  traffic  in  human 
beings.  As  this  grand  scheme  was  concocted  in  the  committee, 
and  not  in  the  Convention,  it  may  be  interesting  to  inquire  into 
its  paternity. 

In  the  debates  which  ensued  on  this  clause,  Mr.  Ellsworth, 
one  of  the  committee  who  reported  it, 

"Was  for  leaving  the  clause  as  it  now  stands.  Let  every  State  import 
what  it  pleases.  The  morality,  the  wisdom  of  slavery,  are  considerations 
belonging  to  the  States  themselves.  What  enriches  a  part  enriches 
the  whole,  and  the  States  are  the  best  judges  of  their  particular  inter 
ests.  The  old  Confederation  had  not  meddled  with  this  point,  and  he 
did  not  see  any  greater  necessity  for  bringing  it  within  the  policy  of 
the  new  one."  "  As  slaves  multiply  so  fast  in  Virginia  and  Maryland 
that  it  is  cheaper  to  raise  than  to  import  them,  whilst  in  the  sickly 
rice-swamps  foreign  supplies  are  necessary,  if  we  go  farther  than  is 
urged  [a  proposal  to  permit  the  trade  for  a  limited  time,]  we  shall 
be  unjust  towards  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  Let  us  not  inter 
meddle."  Madison  Papers,  pp.  1389,  1391. 

This  gentleman  was  one  of  your  "  very  wise  men  ; "  and  his 
mantle  has  recently  fallen  upon  other  wise  men  from  the  East. 
Mr.  Wilson,  another  member  of  the  committee,  objected.  "  All 
articles  imported,"  said  he,  "  are  to  be  taxed  ;  slaves  alone  are 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL   A.    ELIOT.  579 

exempt.  This  is,  in  fact,  a  bounty  on  that  article."  The  clause 
was  referred  to  another  committee,  who  modified  it  by  limiting 
the  restriction  to  1800.  It  was  moved  to  guarantee  the  slave- 
trade  for  twenty  years,  by  postponing  the  restriction  to  1808. 
This  motion  was  seconded  by  Mr.  Gorham,  another  member  of 
the  committee.  Mr.  Randolph,  also  of  the  committee,  was 
against  the  slave-trade,  and  opposed  to  any  restriction  on  the 
power  of  Congress  to  suppress  it.  Two  of  the  committee,  then, 
we  find,  were  against  the  trade,  and  three,  Messrs.  Rutledge, 
Ellsworth,  and  Gorham,  for  perpetuating  it.  And  now,  sir, 
what  were  the  inducements  which  prevailed  on  the  two  wise 
men  from  the  East  to  yield  their  consent  to  a  proposition  so 
wicked  and  abominable  ?  We  are,  of  course,  not  informed  what 
passed  in  the  committee,  but  we  can  well  imagine,  from  the 
language  used  by  the  chairman  and  others  in  the  Convention. 
Said  Mr.  Rutledge, 

"If  the  Convention  thinks  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and 
Georgia  will  ever  agree  to  this  plan  (the  Federal  Constitution)  unless 
their  right  to  import  slaves  be  untouched,  the  expectation  is  VAIN. 
The  people  of  those  States  will  never  be  such  fools  as  to  give  up  so 
important  an  interest." 

In  other  words,  "  Gentlemen  of  the  North,  no  Union  without 
the  African  slave-trade."  Said  Mr.  Charles  Pinckney  : 

"  South  Carolina  can  never  receive  the  plan  (of  the  Constitution) 
if  it  prohibits  the  slave-trade.  In  every  proposed  extension  of  the 
powers  of  Congress,  that  State  lias  expressly  and  watchfully  excepted 
that  of  meddling  with  the  importation  of  negroes."  Madison  Papers, 
p.  1389. 

Mr.  Charles  C.  Pinckney  "  thought  himself  bound  to  declare 
candidly,  that  he  did  not  think  South  Carolina  would  stop  her 
importations  of  slaves  in  any  short  time."  Thus  you  see,  sir, 
that  the  "  deliberate  declarations "  to  which  you  allude  were 
made  in  reference  to  the  continuance  of  the  African  slave-trade, 
and  not,  as  you  suppose,  to  the  catching  of  fugitive  slaves.  Two 
New  England  gentlemen  of  the  committee  yielded  to  these 
declarations,  and  sacrificed  conscience  and  humanity  for  the 
sake  of  the  Union,  and  the  consideration  that  what  enriched  a 


580  JAY'S  WORKS. 

part  enriched  the  whole.  Happily,  in  this  case,  southern  bluster 
was  met  by  southern  bluster,  and  it  is  owing  to  Virginia,  and 
not  to  the  virtue  and  independence  of  New  England,  that  the 
Constitution  was  rescued  from  the  infamy  of  granting  a  solemn 
and  perpetual  guaranty  to  an  accursed  commerce. 

In  Virginia,  the  slaves,  as  Mr.  Ellsworth  remarked,  multiplied 
so  fast,  that  it  was  cheaper  to  raise  than  import  them.  She  was 
then,  as  now,  a  breeding  State  for  the  southern  markets.  Hence, 
her  delegates  were  as  ready  to  bluster  for  protection,  as  the 
South  Carolina  delegates  were  for  a  free  trade  in  men  and 
women.  Of  course  the  motives  assigned  were  patriotic,  not 
selfish.  Mr.  Randolph  "  could  never  .agree  to  the  clause  as  it 
stands.  He  would  sooner  RISK  THE  CONSTITUTION."  Madison 
Papers,  p.  1396.  Mr.  Madison  would  not  consent  to  the  con 
tinuance  of  the  traffic  till  1808. 

"  Twenty  years  will  produce  all  the  mischief  that  can  be  apprehended 
from  the  liberty  to  import  slaves.  So  long  a  term  will  be  more  dis 
honorable  to  the  American  character,  than  to  say  nothing  about  it  in 
the  Constitution."  Madison  Papers,  p.  1427. 

Mr.  Mason  from  Virginia  denounced  the  traffic  as  "  infernal." 
Madison  Papers,  p.  1390.  The  result  of  all  these  threats  on 
each  side  was,  as  usual,  a  compromise,  by  which  Congress  was 
prohibited  from  suppressing  the  foreign  and  internal  commerce 
in  slaves  for  twenty  years,  and  was  left  at  liberty  to  do  as  it 
might  see  fit,  after  that  period.  After  twenty  years  the  foreign 
trade  was  suppressed,  and  North  and  South  Carolina  and  Georgia 
remained  in  the  Union !  Virginia,  as  well  as  the  other  slave 
States,  is  greatly  interested  in  the  home  slave-trade,  and  that  has 
not  been  suppressed,  although  Congress  has  full  power  over  it. 

It  does  not  appear  from  Mr.  Madison's  report  what  reply  was 
made  in  the  Convention  to  the  Virginia  objections,  but  in  his 
speech  in  the  Convention  of  his  own  State,  he  tells  us : 

li  The  gentlemen  from  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  argued  in  this 
manner :  We  have  now  liberty  to  import  this  species  of  property,  and 
much  of  the  property  now  possessed  had  been  purchased  or  otherwise 
acquired  in  contemplation  of  improving  it  by  the  assistance  of  imported 
slaves.  What  would  be  the  consequence  of  hindering  us  in  this  point  ? 
The  slaves  of  Virginia  would  rise  in  value,  and  we  should  be  obliged 
to  go  to  your  markets."  Elliott's  Debates,  III,  p.  454. 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL    A.    ELIOT,  581 

Certainly,  sir,  these  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  delegates 
were  "  very  wise  men,"  and  their  predictions  are  now  history, 
and  the  planters  of  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  Mississippi,  and 
Louisiana  buy  slaves  of  the  Virginia  breeders.  But  what 
shall  I  say  of  the  wise  men  from  the  East?  This  horrible 
compromise,  this  guaranty  of  the  African  slave-trade  for  twenty 
years,  was  carried  by  the  votes  of  the  Massachusetts  and  Con 
necticut  delegates,  and  would  have  been  defeated,  had  they  had 
the  courage  and  virtue  to  vote  against  it. 

I  have  indulged  in  this  long  digression,  to  show  that  the  clause 
in  the  Constitution  respecting  fugitive  slaves  was  not,  as  you 
represent  it,  the  great  compromise  of  the  Constitution,  the  key 
stone  of  the  Union,  and  that  our  slave-holding  fathers  were  not, 
as  you  suppose,  greatly  perplexed,  nor  their  consciences  deeply 
wounded,  by  the  existence  of  slavery  in  all  the  States  of  the 
confederacy,  with  one  exception.  Having  disposed  of  your  his 
tory,  I  return  to  your  logic. 

Whether  the  constitutional  injunction  to  surrender  fugitive 
slaves  was  a  compromise  or  not,  is  of  no  practical  importance. 
The  clause  speaks  for  itself,  and  prescribes  no  mode  by  which 
the  title  of  the  claimant  shall  be  ascertained,  while  it  expressly 
implies  that  the  title  shall  be  established  before  the  surrender  is 
made.  Hence,  the  fair  presumption  is,  that  the  title  to  a  MAN 
shall  be  proved,  witti  at  least  as  much  certainty  and  formality  as 
the  title  to  a  horse.  Had  you,  sir,  in  your  law,  provided  that  a 
Virginian  shall  not  come  to  Boston,  and  there  seize  and  carry 
off  a  husband,  wife,  or  child,  but  by  the  same  process,  and  on  as 
strong  evidence,  as  he  may  now  seize  and  carry  off  a  horse 
which  you  claim  as  your  own,  instead  of  finding  your  name  a 
byword  and  a  reproach,  you  would  have  been  honored  and  ap 
plauded  by  your  fellow-citizens,  and  returned  to  Congress  by  a 
triumphant  vote ;  nor  is  there  a  syllable  in  the  Constitution 
which  prohibits  or  discountenances  such  a  mode  of  deciding  the 
title  to  a  human  being.  It  is  in  vain,  then,  sir,  that  you  plead 
your  "  constitutional  obligation "  in  justification  of  your  most 
detestable  law.  But,  as  if  one  wrong  could  justify  another,  you 
plead  in  your  excuse  the  law  of  1793?  and  you  ask  in  your  sim* 


582  JAY'S  WORKS. 

plicity  of  those  who  condemn  your  law,  if  they  do  not  perceive 
that  they  are  "denouncing  their  fathers."  Well,  sir,  were  our 
fathers  infallible  ?  Pity  it  is,  sir,  that  you  were  not  on  the  floor 
of  Congress  when  that  body  declared  the  African  slave-trade  to 
be  PIRACY.  You  might  then,  sir,  have  risen  in  your  place,  and 
inquired,  "  Do  you  not  perceive  that  you  are  denouncing  your 
fathers,  who  were  very  wise  men,  and  who  guaranteed  for  twenty 
years  the  very  traffic  which  you  now  proclaim  to  be  piracy  ?  "  Pity- 
it  is,  sir,  that  you  did  not  stand  by  the  side  of  your  patron  on 
Plymouth  Rock,  and  whisper  in  his  ear,  "  Do  you  not  perceive 
that  you  are  denouncing  our  fathers  ?  "  when  he  declared,  "  In 
the  sight  of  our  law  the  African  slave-trader  is  a  PIRATE  and  a 
FELON,  and  in  the  sight  of  Heaven  an  offender  beyond  the  ordi 
nary  depth  of  human  guilt."  Mr.  Webster  is  better  versed  in 
constitutional  history  than  you  are,  and  he  well  knew  that  some 
of  our  fathers  "  deliberately  declared  they  would  not  enter  a 
Union  "  in  which  they  were  to  be  debarred  from  pursuing  this 
piratical,  felonious,  guilty  traffic.  Our  fathers  were  mostly  slave 
holders,  and  yet  you,  sir,  unconsciously  denounce  both  their 
morality  and  intelligence,  when  you  affirm  the  institution  of 
slavery  to  be  "  wrong  and  unwise."  And  yet  all  who  presume 
to  find  fault  with  your  cruel,  unjust,  wicked  law,  are  guilty,  for 
sooth,  of  denouncing  their  fathers  ! 

You  tell  us  that  the  Convention  of  1787  "agreed  that  the  new 
Constitution  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  slavery."  I  have 
not  been  so  fortunate  as  to  find  the  record  of  this  agreement,  but 
if  such  a  compact  was  indeed  made,  then  seldom,  if  ever,  has  a 
solemn  covenant  been  more  grossly  and  wickedly  violated.  Is 
it,  sir,  in  virtue  of  this  agreement,  that  you  voted  to  fine  and  im* 
prison  every  conscientious,  humane  citizen  who  may  refuse,  at 
the  command  of  a  minion  of  a  commissioner,  to  join  in  a  slave 
hunt  ?  Did  this  agreement  confer  on  the  holders  of  slaves  an 
enlarged  representation  in  Congress  ?  Was  it  in  pursuance  of 
this  agreement  that  the  importation  of  slaves  was  guaranteed 
for  twenty  years  ?  Did  this  agreement  authorize  the  Federal 
Government  to  enter  into  negotiations  with  Great  Britain  and 
Mexico  for  a  mutual  surrender  of  runaway  slaves  ?  Was  it  in 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL    A.    ELIOT.  583 

pursuance  of  this  same  agreement,  that  our  government  nego 
tiated  with  Russia  and  Spain  to  prevent  emancipation  in  Cuba, 
— a  traitorous  conspiracy  with  despots  against  the  rights  of  man  ? 
How,  sir,  was  this  agreement  illustrated,  when  Daniel  Webster, 
as  Secretary  of  State  under  John  Tyler  of  glorious  memory, 
made  a  demand  on  Great  Britain  for  the  surrender  of  the  slaves 
of  the  Creole,  who  had  gallantly  achieved  their  liberty,  and  taken 
refuge  in  the  "West  Indies  ?  How  comes  it,  sir,  that  under  this 
agreement  an  act  of  Congress  secures  to  the  slave  States  officers 
in  the  navy  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  their  slaves  ?  How 
is  it,  that  under  this  agreement  colored  men  are  seized  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  under  "the  exclusive  jurisdiction"  of  the 
Federal  Government,  on  the  suspicion  of  being  slaves,  and  when 
that  suspicion  is  rebutted  by  the  non-appearance  of  any  claimant, 
are  sold  as  slaves  for  life,  to  pay  their  jail  fees  ?  Perhaps  it 
would  be  denouncing  our  fathers,  to  say  that  Messrs.  Webster 
and  Cass  may  search  the  archives  of  Austria  in  vain  for  any  act 
so  utterly  diabolical  as  this,  perpetrated  by  a  government  which 
it  was  agreed  "  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  slavery."  Was 
it  to  carry  out  this  famous  agreement  that  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  officially  declared  through  its  Secretary,  Mr.  Calhoun,  that 
Texas  was  annexed  to  preserve  the  institution  of  slavery  from 
the  perils  that  threatened  it  ? 

Once  more,  sir.  We  all  know  that  the  slave-holders  regard 
the  free  blacks  as  dangerous  to  the  subordination  of  their  slaves, 
and  are  contemplating  their  forcible  removal.  Think  you,  sir, 
Mr.  Webster  was  mindful  of  the  agreement  you  have  discovered, 
when,  on  the  7th  of  last  March,  in  his  place  in  the  Senate,  he 
proposed  his  magnificent  scheme  of  taxing  the  whole  nation  un 
told  millions  to  give  additional  security  to  property  in  human 
beings  ? 

"  If,"  said  the  Massachusetts  Senator, "  any  gentleman  from  the  South 
shall  propose  a  scheme  of  colonization  to  be  carried  on  by  this  govern 
ment  upon  a  large  scale,  for  the  transportation  of  free  colored  people 
to  any  colony  or  any  place  in  the  world,  I  should  be  quite  disposed  to 
incur 'almost  any  degree  of  expense  to  accomplish  the  object."  \ 


584  JAY'S  WORKS. 

The  magnitude  of  the  scheme,  and  the  cost  at  which  it  is  to 
be  accomplished,  are  thus  hinted : 

"  There  have  been  received  into  the  treasury  of  the  United  States 
EIGHTY  MILLIONS  of  dollars,  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public 
lands  ceded  by  Virginia.  If  the  residue  should  be  sold  at  the  same 
rate,  the  whole  aggregate  will  exceed  TWO  HUNDRED  MILLIONS  of 
dollars.  If  Virginia  and  the  South  see  fit  to  adopt  any  proposition  to 
relieve  themselves  from  the  free  people  of  color  among  them,  they  have 
my  free  consent  that  the  government  shall  pay  them  any  sum  of  money 

/it  of  the  proceeds  which  may  be  adequate  for  the  purpose." 
Will  you,  sir,  please  to  point  out  the  article  of  the  agreement 
of  1787,  which,  while  it  restricts  Congress  from  having  any 
thing  to  do  with  slavery,  sanctions  an  appropriation  not  exceed 
ing  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  for  the  purpose  of  strength 
ening  the  institution  of  slavery,  by  relieving  the  slave-holders 
from  the  presence  of  free  people  of  color,  and  forcibly  transporting 
to  any  place  in  the  world  hundreds  of  thousands  of  native-born 
Americans,  who  have  as  good  a  constitutional  right  to  the 
pursuit  of  life,  liberty,  and  happiness  on  their  native  soil,  as  Mr. 
Webster  himself?  \  Mr.  Webster,  it  seems,  now  views  the  sub 
ject  of  negro  colonization  in  precisely  the  same  light  that  he 
did  thirty  years  since,  although  his  intentions  on  this,  as  on  vari 
ous  other  points,  have  undergone  marvellous  changes.  We  learn 
from  a  Massachusetts  paper  (Congregationalism  July  G,  1849,) 
that  this  gentleman  was  in  1822  appointed  by  a  public  meeting  to 
draft  a  constitution  for  the  State  Colonization  Society.  After 
considerable  discussion  in  the  committee  he^ose  and  said,  "  I 
must  lea,ve.  I  understand  the  whole  project!.  It  is  a  scheme  of 
the  slave-holders  to  get  rid  of  their  free  negroes.  I  will  have 
nothing  to  do  with  it."^/ 

And  how,  sir,  as  a  member  of  Congress,  have  you  fulfilled 
this  agreement  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  slavery  ?  Not  only 
have  you  required  "  good  citizens,"  when  commanded,  to  hunt 
and  catch  slaves,  but  you  have  even  fixed  a  money  value  on 
every  slave.  If  a  master  fails  to  recover  his  fugitive  slave 
through  the  agency,  "  direct  or  indirect,"  of  any  citizen,  you 
give  him  an  action  for  damages.  In  all  other  cases  of  trespass, 
the  damages  sustained  by  the  plaintiff  are  assessed  by  a  jury 


LETTER    TO    SAMUEL    A.    ELIOT.  585 

according  to  the  evidence.  You  kindly  save  the  master  the 
trouble  of  proving  the  value  of  his  lost  property,  and  give  him 
out  of  the  pockets  of  the  defendant  $1000,  no  matter  whether 
the  slave  was  sick  or  well,  young  or  old.  If  a  woman  escapes 
with  a  child  at  the  breast,  the  master  is  to  have  $2000  !  Rec 
ollect,  sir,  this  is  for  damages  to  the  slave-holder ;  the  trespasser 
is  to  pay  to  the  government,  which  was  to  have  nothing  to  do 
with  slavery,  another  thousand  dollars,  and  to  be  incarcerated 
six  months.  Either,  sir,  you  have  wholly  mistaken  the  nature 
of  the  "  agreement,"  or  the  slave-holders,  through  the  aid  of 
their  northern  auxiliaries,  have,  in  defiance  of  the  agreement, 
rendered  the  Federal  Government  a  mighty  engine  in  protect 
ing,  extending,  and  perpetuating  the  stupendous  iniquity  of 
human  bondage. 

Your  first  excuse  for  voting  for  the  recent  slave-catching  law, 
after  relying  on  your  "  constitutional  obligation,"  is,  that  it  is 
"practically  more  favorable  to  the  fugitive  than  the  law  of 
1793  !!!"  The  southern  lawyers,  then,  who  drafted  the  bill, 
were  a  set  of  blunderers,  and  your  constituents  are  blockheads 
for  blaming  you  for  legislating  against  human  rights,  when,  in 
fact,  you  were  loosening  the  bonds  of  the  oppressed,  and  facil 
itating  escape  from  the  prison-house.  Your  assertion  may  well 
excite  astonishment  at  the  South  as  well  as  the  North,  till  your 
proof  is  known,  and  then,  indeed,  astonishment  will  be  exchanged 
for  ridicule.  You  tell  us, 

"  The  evidence  of  such  an  assertion  may  be  found  in  the  fact,  that  by 
the  old  law  every  magistrate  in  Massachusetts,  amounting  to  several 
hundreds,  and  so  in  the  other  States,  were  authorized  and  required  to 
cause  the  arrest  of  any  fugitive,  examine  into  his  case,  and  deliver  him 
to  the  claimant,  if  he  was  proved  to  be  a^slave  ;  while  under  the  new 
law  that  power  is  limited  to  the  justices  of  the  United  States  court^ 
and  to  the  commissioners  appointed  by  them,  not  exceeding,  perhaps, 
on  an  average,  six  or  eight  persons  in  each  State." 

So  it  seems  the  slave-catchers  had  formerly  no  difficulty  in 
finding  a  magistrate  among  hundreds  to  aid  them,  but  that  now, 
before  they  hunt  a  slave,  they  must  hunt  and  catch  a  United 
States  judge,  or  a  commissioner  of  six  or  eight  in  a  whole  State. 
Truly  a  hard  case,  and  yet  the  slave-holders  themselves  set  the 
50 


586  JAY7S    WOUK3. 

very  trap  in  which  they  have  been  caught,  and  thus  it  is  that, 
through  their  folly,  and  your  generosity  in  not  pointing  out  to 
them  the  blunder  they  were  committing,  the  new  law  is  more 
favorable  to  the  fugitive  than  the  old  one.  Surely,  sir,  it  could 
not  have  been  more  perilous  to  the  young  West  Indian  judge  to 
meddle  with  "  reasons,"  than  it  is  for  you.  XEither,  sir,  you  voted 
for  the  law  without  reading  it,  or  you  havcNbrgotten  its  provi 
sion.  )Be  assured,  the  southern  lawyers  were  as  well  acquainted 
as  yourself  with  the  fact,  that  a  few  individuals,  termed  "  com 
missioners,"  had  been  appointed  by  the  United  States  courts  to 
perform  certain  ministerial  acts  ;  and  that,  as  these  men  were 
now  to  be  promoted  to  the  office  of  slave-catching  judges,  they 
would  be  wholly  inadequate  in  number  to  lend  efficient  aid  to 
the  hunters  of  men.  Hence,  they  inserted  in  the  third  section 
of  the  bill,  the  following  enactment,  which  has  strangely  escaped 
your  recollection,  viz. : 

"  And  it  is  further  enacted,  that  the  Circuit  Courts  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  Superior  Courts  of  each  organized  Territory  of  the 
United  States,  SHALL  from  time  to  time  ENLARGE  THE  NUMBER  OF 
COMMISSIONERS  with  a  view  to  afford  reasonable  facilities  to  reclaim 
fugitives  from  labor,  and  to  the  prompt  discharge  of  the  duties  imposed 
by  this  act." 

So  that,  instead  of  six  or  eight  commissioners  in  a  State,  we 
are  to  have  as  many  hundreds,  if  needed.  Nor  is  this  all.  By 
the  second  section,  the  power  possessed  by  the  Circuit  Courts  to 
appoint  commissioners  is  for  the  first  time  conferred  on  the  Ter 
ritorial  courts,  so  that  there  shall  be  no  lack  of  slave-catching 
judges  in  Oregon,  Utah,  and  New  Mexico.  Instead  of  your  six 
or  eight  commissioners  in  a  State,  your  law  contemplates  that 
there  shall  be  one  or  more  in  each  county ;  for  the  fifth  section 
provides,  that  "  the  better  to  enable  the  said  commissioners  to 

execute  their  duties  faithfully  and  efficiently, they  are 

hereby  authorized  and  empowered,  within  their  counties  respec 
tively"  to  appoint  one  or  more  persons  to  execute  their  warrants. 
So  it  seems  we  are  to  have  an  unlimited  number  of  judges  and 
executioners.  These  executioners,  expressly  appointed  to  catch 
slaves,  and  of  course  among  the  most  worthless  and  degraded  of 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL   A.    ELIOT.  587 

the  community,  are  one  and  all  invested  with  the  power  of  a 
high  sheriff  to  call  out  the  posse  comitatus,  not  merely  in  his 
own  county,  but  in  every  hamlet  in  the  State,  and  require  "  good 
citizens,"  under  pain  of  fine  and  imprisonment,  to  join  him  in 
his  execrable  hunt.  Really,  sir,  your  "  evidence  "  that  the  new 
law  is  more  favorable  to  the  fugitive  than  the  old  one  falls  short 
of  demonstration. 

You  thus  apologize  for  not  giving  the  alleged  fugitive  a  trial 
by  jury : 

"  There  was  no  more  trial  by  jury  provided  for  under  the  old  law 
than  under  the  new  law.  The  claim  of  a  jury  trial  is  entirely  new  ; 
never  thought  of  till  modern  discussions  of  the  subject  begun.  For 
fifty-seven  years  our  fathers  and  we  have  been  living  under  the  laws 
which  provided  no  such  thing,  and  now  one  which  makes  no  such  pro 
vision  is  denounced  in  unmeasured  terms  as  cruel  and  inhuman.  Where 
have  we  all  been  living  for  half  a  century  ?  " 

Surely,  sir,  it  is  a  most  logical  reason  for  not  changing  a 
wicked  law,  that  it  has  been  in  force  for  fifty-seven  years 4 
Strange  that  the  legislators  of  Massachusetts  did  not  perceive 
the  force  of  this  reasoning  when  they  abolished  the  laws  for 
hanging  witches  and  whipping  Quakers.  Permit  me,  sir,  to  askj 
Where  had  you  been  living  when  you  declared  it  to  be  the  duty 
of  Congress  to  give  the  fugitive  a  trial  by  jury,  although  for 
fifty-seven  years  such  a  trial  had  been  denied  him  ?  You  proba 
bly  forgot,  sir,  when  giving  the  above  "  reason,"  that,  not  long 
before  you  took  your  seat  in  Congress,  you  had,  as  a  member  of 
the  Massachusetts  Legislature,  voted  for  the  following  resolu 
tion,  viz. : 

"  We  hold  it  to  be  the  duty  of  that  body  (Congress)  to  pass  such 
laws  only  in  regard  thereto  as  will  be  maintained  by  the  public  senti 
ment  of  the  free  States,  where  such  laws  are  to  be  enforced,  and  which 
shall  especially  secure  all  persons,  whose  surrender  may  be  claimed  as 
having  escaped  from  labor  and  service  in  other  States,  the  right  of 
having  the  validity  of  such  claim  determined  by  a  jury  in  the  State 
where  such  claim  is  made." 

So  it  seems  that,  while  in  Boston,  you  esteemed  it  the  especial 
duty  of  Congress  to  grant  the  fugitive  a  trial  by  jury,  but  that 
in  the  atmosphere  of  Washington  you  acquired  new  views  of 
moral  philosophy. 


588  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Suffer  me,  sir,  also  to  inquire,  Where  had  Mr.  Webster  been 
"living  for  half  a  century,"  when,  on  the  3d  of  last  June,  he 
introduced  into  the  Senate  a  bill  amendatory  of  the  act  of  1793, 
granting  the  alleged  fugitive  a  trial  by  jury  whenever  he  shall 
make  oath  that  he  is  not  the  slave  of  the  claimant  ? 

Another  of  your  "  reasons  "  is,  that  your  law  does  not  suspend 
the  habeas  corpus,  and  in  proof  of  its  innocence  in  this  respect, 
you  refer  to  the  opinion  of  "legal  authority  of  the  highest 
kind,"  viz.,  Mr.  Crittenden,  of  Kentucky.  It  is  very  true  that 
the  words  habeas  corpus  are  omitted  in  your  law,  as  the  word 
slave  is  in  the  Constitution,  but  in  neither  case  is  the  omission 
of  any  practical  importance.  You  must  be  aware,  sir,  that 
whenever  a  person  is  in  the  custody  of  another,  if  sufficient 
ground  be  shown  to  render  it  probable  that  the  custody  is  illegal, 
the  writ  is  granted  as  a  matter  of  right.  But  why  is  it  granted  ? 
That  the  court  may  at  its  discretion,  according  to  circumstances, 
remand  or  discharge  the  prisoner.  Take  away  from  the  court 
the  discretionary  power  to  discharge,  and  the  writ  is  rendered 
an  idle  form.  Your  law,  you  say,  does  not  suspend  the  habeas 
corpus ;  it  is  guiltless  of  such  an  enormity.  A  man  who  is 
carrying  off  one  of  our  citizens  in  chains,  may  indeed  be  served 
with  the  writ,  and  he  brings  his  prisoner  before  the  court,  and 
he  produces  a  paper  for  which  he  paid  ten  dollars,  and  reads 
from  your  law,  that  this  paper,  called  a  certificate,  "  shall  be 
conclusive,"  and  "  shall  prevent  all  molestation  of  said  person 
or  persons  by  any  process  issued  by  any  court,  judge,  or  magis 
trate,  or  other  person  whomsoever."  It  is  because  the  word 
process,  instead  of  habeas  corpus,  is  used,  that  your  law  does  not 
suspend  the  writ  of  freedom  !  In  vain  may  the  prisoner  plead 
that  he  is  not  the  person  mentioned  in  the  certificate ;  in  vain 
may  he  offer  to  show  that  the  certificate  is  a  forgery  ;  in  vain 
may  he  urge  that  the  man  who  signed  the  certificate  was  not  a 
commissioner.  The  little  piece  of  paper  costing  ten  dollars  is 
to  save  the  slave-catcher  from  "  all  molestation,"  not  because  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus  is  suspended,  —  0,  no  !  but  in  consequence 
of  the  words  "  any  process  ! " 

You  refer  to  two  objections,  which  you  say  are  made  to  your 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL   A.    ELIOT.  589 

law,  and  endeavor  to  refute  them ;  viz.,  the  onerous  obligations 
imposed  upon  the  marshal,  and  the  penalties  attached  to  an 
attempt  "  to  assist  in  the  rescue  of  the  slave  after  he  has  been 
proved  to  be  such."  You  have  evinced  your  discretion  in 
confining  yourself  to  only  four  objections  made  to  your 
law ;  viz.,  the  denial  of  a  jury  trial,  the  suspension  of  the  habeas 
corpus,  the  duties  of  the  marshal,  and  the  penalties  imposed  on 
an  attempt  to  rescue  the  slave  after  judgment.  With  what  suc 
cess,  and  with  what  "  reasons,"  you  have  combated  the  first  two 
has  already  been  seen.  As  to  the  last  two,  they  scarcely  merit 
an  answer,  and  hence  you  have  selected  them.  If  the  obliga 
tions  of  the  marshal  are  onerous,  he  has  voluntarily  assumed 
them  by  accepting  the  office.  If,  in  a  civilized  country,  a  man 
attempts  forcibly  to  rescue  a  prisoner  in  the  custody  of  the  law, 
he  must  expect  to  be  punished.  There  are  many  weighty  objec 
tions  to  your  law  which  you  have  not  thought  it  expedient  to 
notice.  Permit  me  to  supply  your  omission,  and  to  tell  you  why 
your  law  is  so  intensely  odious.  And  here  let  me  again  remind 
you  of  the  true  issue  between  you  and  the  people.  It  is  not 
now  the  constitutional  power  of  Congress  under  the  decision  of 
the  Supreme  Court  to  pass  a  law  for  the  recovery  of  fugitive 
slaves,  —  this  is  conceded.  The  odium  you  have  experienced, 
and  against  which  you, have  appealed  to  the  public,  is  caused  by 
your  having  voted  for  a  law  which,  in  its  details,  violates  the 
Constitution,  and  outrages  justice  and  humanity.  Throughout 
your  long  and  labored  apology,  you  avoid  grappling  with  these 
charges.  You  vindicate  the  denial  of  a  jury  trial  only  on  the 
ground  that  it  has  been  denied  for  fifty-seven  years,  and  on  the 
authority  of  Mr.  Crittenden  affirm  that  the  habeas  corpus  is  not 
suspended ;  but  you  avoid  the  constitutional  and  moral  objections 
urged  against  your  law. 

By  the  Constitution,  fugitive  slaves  are  to  be  restored  to  those, 
and  those  only,  who  are  legally  entitled  to  their  services.  The 
means  of  ascertaining  whether  a  man  is  a  slave,  whether  he  has 
fled  from  his  master,  and  whether  the  claimant  is  legally  entitled 
to  him,  are  not  defined  by  the  Constitution.  It  is  now  intrusted 
to  the  discretion  of  Congress  to  specify  these  means,  but  of 
50* 


590  JAY'S  WORKS. 

course  that  discretion  ought  to  be  exercised  in  accordance  with 
the  Constitution,  with  justice,  and  with  humanity.  The  com 
plaint  against  you  is,  that  you  have  voted  for  a  law  which 
outrages  them  all,  and  against  this  complaint  you  have  failed  to 
offer  the  shadow  of  a  vindication. 

A  Virginian  conies  to  Boston,  and  there  seizes  one  of  the 
inhabitants  as  his  slave.  The  man  claimed  declares  the  claim 
to  be  false  and  fraudulent.  Here,  then,  is  an  issue  both  of  law 
and  of  fact  between  two  men  equally  entitled  to  the  protection 
of  law  ;  for  the  man  claimed  is  on  every  presumption  of  law  and 
justice  to  be  regarded  as  free,  till  the  contrary  is  proved.  The 
issue  between  these  two  men  is,  I  have  said,  one  of  fact  and  of 
law.  Is  the  person  seized  the  man  he  is  said  to  be  ?  This  is  a 
question  of  fact.  Admitting  his  identity,  is  he  a  slave,  and,  if 
so,  does  he  belong  to  the  claimant  ?  These  are  both  questions 
of  law,  resting  upon  facts  to  be  proved.  Those  familiar  with 
the  reports  of  southern  courts  know  that  the  title  to  slaves  is  a 
frequent  matter  of  litigation,  involving  intricate  questions  re 
specting  the  validity  of  wills,  the  construction  of  deeds,  the 
partition  of  estates,  and  the  claims  of  creditors.  By  carrying 
a  slave  into  a  free  State,  the  owner  forfeits  his  title  to  him 
while  there,  and  cannot  reclaim  him ;  and  hence  the  acts  of  the 
claimant  himself  may  be  involved  in  the  issue.  And  now,  sir, 
I  ask,  have  you  ever  known,  or  can  you  conceive  of,  any  issue 
at  law  respecting  the  title  to  property  so  awfully  momentous  to 
a  defendant  as  the  one  we  are  considering?  Were  your  son  or 
daughter  the  defendant  in  such  an  issue,  would  you  not  rejoice 
to  purchase  a  favorable  judgment  by  the  contribution  of  the  last 
cent  of  your  great  wealth  ?  Let  us,  then,  proceed  to  inquire 
what  provision  you,  in  the  fear  of  God  and  the  love  of  justice 
and  humanity,  have  made  for  the  trial  of  this  tremendous  issue, 
—  an  issue  on  the  result  of  which  all  the  hopes  of  a  fellow-man 
for  the  life  that  is,  and  for  that  which  is  to  come,  are  suspended. 

In  the  first  place,  what  is  the  pecuniary  value  of  the  plain 
tiff's  claim  to  himself?  —  for  it  would  be  an  insult  to  humanity 
to  estimate  in  dollars  and  cents  the  blessings  of  liberty  and  of 
the  conjugal  and  parental  relations  to  the  unhappy  defendant. 


LETTER    TO    SAMUEL    A.    ELIOT.  591 

You  have  yourself  fixed  the  value  of  the  plaintiffs  claim  at  one 
thousand  dollars.  So  far,  then,  the  issue  is,  by  your  own 
showing,  within  the  constitutional  guaranty  of  trial  by  jury  in 
all  suits  at  common  law  where  the  matter  in  controversy  is  of 
the  value  of  twenty  dollars.  But  is  the  claim  made  by  the 
plaintiff  "  a  suit  at  common  law  ? "  What  is  a  suit  ?  The 
Supreme  Court  thus  answers  the  question  : 

"  We  understand  it  (a  suit)  to  be  the  prosecution  or  pursuit  of  some 
claim,  demand,  or  request.  In  law  language,  it  is  the  prosecution  of 
some  demand  in  a  court  of  justice."  6  Wheaton,  407. 

It  seems,  then,  that  the  Virginian,  in  claiming  an  inhabitant 
of  Boston  as  his  slave,  in  fact  brings  a  suit  against  him  for  ser 
vices  due  worth  one  thousand  dollars.  Now  remember,  sir,  the 
fugitive  is  not  to  be  delivered  up,  as  a  mass  of  flesh,  or  inanimate 
matter,  belonging  to  the  claimant,  but  as  a  debtor,  in  the  phrase 
ology  of  your  own  law,  "  owing  service  or  labor."  The  suit  is 
brought  for  service  or  labor  due,  and  the  Constitution  provides 
that,  the  person  so  owing  service  or  labor  shall  be  delivered  to 
him  to  whom  the  same  is  "  due"  And  now,  is  this  suit  for  ser 
vice  due  "  a  suit  at  common  law  ?  "  Again  let  the  Supreme 
Court  answer. 

"  The  phrase  common  law,  found  in  this  clause  (the  clause  guarantee 
ing  a  jury  trial,)  is  used  in  contradistinction  to  equity  and  admiralty 
and  maritime  jurisdiction.  It  is  well  known,  that,  in  civil  causes  in 
courts  of  equity  and  admiralty,  juries  do  not  intervene,  and  that 
courts  of  equity  use  the  trial  by  jury  only  in  extraordinary  cases, 
to  inform  the  conscience  of  the  court.  When,  therefore,  we  find  that 
the  amendment  requires  that  the  right  of  trial  by  jury  shall  be  pre 
served  in  suits  at  common  law,  the  natural  conclusion  is,  that  this 
distinction  was  present  to  the  minds  of  the  framers  of  the  amendment. 
By  common  law,  they  meant  what  the  Constitution  denominated,  in  the 
third  article,  *  law ; '  not  merely  suits  which  the  common  law  recog 
nized  among  its  old  and  settled  proceedings,  but  suits  in  which  legal 
rights  were  to  be  ascertained  and  determined,  in  contradistinction 
to  those  where  equitable  rights  alone  were  recognized,  and  equitable 

remedies  were   administered In  a  just  sense,  the 

amendment,  then,  may  be  construed  to  embrace  all  suits  which  are 
not  of  equity  and  admiralty  jurisdiction,  whatever  may  be  the  peculiar 
form  which  they  may  assume  to  settle  legal  rights."  3  Peters,  446. 

If  there  be  meaning  in  words,  these  authorities  settle  the  case, 
and  your  law  is  in  palpable  violation  of  the  amendment  to  the 


592  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Constitution  securing  a  trial  by  jury  in  suits  at  common  law 
where  the  matter  in  controversy  exceeds  twenty  dollars  in  value. 
Think  not,  sir,  that  I  am  misrepresenting  the  Supreme  Court. 
I  know  well  that  the  dicta  I  have  quoted  have  reference  to  white 
men,  and  that  they  have  been  virtually  set  aside  in  decisions 
respecting  black  men.  I  well  know,  that  in  our  model  republic, 
law  and  justice  and  morality  are  all  cutaneous.  But  admitting 
that  the  Supreme  Court  have  stultified  themselves,  and  virtually 
denied,  that,  where  a  suit  was  brought  for  the  services  of  a  Hack 
man,  the  Constitution  required  a  jury  trial,  recollect,  sir,  that 
not  in  one  single  instance  has  the  court  decided  that  the  Con 
stitution  prohibited  such  a  trial.  But  if  not  prohibited,  then 
Congress  are  permitted  to  accord  such  a  trial,  and  loth  you  and 
Mr.  Webster  have  declared  that  Congress  had  a  right  to  grant  such 
a  trial,  and  ought  to  grant  it.  In  voting,  therefore,  for  a  law 
denying  such  a  trial,  you  made  a  voluntary  surrender  to  the 
slave-holder  of  the  security  which  such  a  trial  would  have 
afforded  to  multitudes  of  your  poor,  ignorant,  oppressed  fellow- 
men.  For  this  act  of  cruelty  and  injustice,  committed  against 
your  own  late  conviction  of  duty,  what  is  your  justification  ? 
Why,  that  the  blacks  had  been  already  deprived  of  the  right  of 
trial  by  jury  fifty-seven  years  ! 

Let  us  now  see  what  tribunal  you  have  substituted  for  a 
jury  in  the  trial  of  one  of  the  most  momentous  issues  that  can 
engage  the  attention  of  a  court  of  justice.  You  have  provided 
for  the  appointment  of  an  indefinite  number  of  judges,  each  of 
whom  is  to  have  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  these  issues,  and  from 
whose  judgment  there  is  to  be  no  appeal.  The  Constitution 
declares,  "  The  judges,  both  of  the  supreme  and  inferior  courts, 
shall  hold  their  offices  during  good  behavior,  and  shall,  at  stated 
times,  receive  for  their  services  a  compensation,  which  shall 
not  be  diminished  during  their  continuance  in  office."  These 
judges  are  appointed  by  the  Senate,  on  the  nomination  of  the 
President.  Your  herd  of  judges,  called  commissioners,  are 
appointed  by  the  courts,  and  hold  office  during  pleasure,  and 
instead  of  receiving  a  salary,  are  rewarded  by  a  rule,  the  infamy 
of  which,  it  is  believed,  belongs  to  your  law  exclusively, —  a  rule 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL    A.    ELIOT.  593 

which  doubles  their  compensation  whenever  they  decide  in  favor 
of  the  rich  plaintiff,  and  against  the  poor  and  friendless  defen 
dant.  But  perhaps  you  will  deny  that  these  men  are  judges ; 
for,  if  judges,  their  appointment  is  palpably  unconstitutional. 
Let  us  hear  the  Supreme  Court,  at  a  time  when  it  was  deemed 
expedient  to  maintain  that  the  persons  who  executed  the  law  of 
1793  were  judges. 

"It  is  plain,  that,  where  a  claim  is  made  by  the  owner  out  of  pos 
session  for  the  delivery  of  a  slave,  it  must  be  made,  if  made  at  all, 
against  some  other  person ;  and  inasmuch  as  the  right  is  a  right  of 
property,  capable  of  being  recognized  and  asserted  by  proceedings 
before  a  court  of  justice  between  parties  adverse  to  each  other,  it  consti 
tutes,  in  the  strictest  sense,  a  controversy  between  parties,  and  a  case 
arising  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  within  the  express 
delegation  of  judicial  power  given  by  that  instrument."  16  Peters, 
616. 

Hence  your  commissioners  are,  in  the  strictest  sense,  judges, 
exercising  "judicial  power"  delegated  by  the  Constitution. 

You  pronounce  Mr.  Crittenden  "  legal  authority  of  the  highest 
kind."  This  legal  authority  understands  the  sixth  section  of 
your  law  as  providing  that  each  commissioner  "shall  have 
judicial  power  and  jurisdiction  to  hear,  examine,  and  decide  the 
case  in  a  summary  manner."  Now,  if  a  man,  having  judicial 
power  and  jurisdiction  to  decide  controversies  between  parties 
adverse  to  each  other,  in  controversies  arising  under  the  Consti 
tution  and  within  the  express  delegation  of  judicial  power  given 
by  that  instrument,  is  not  a  judge,  do  tell  us  who  is  one.  Once 
more,  sir,  Mr.  Crittenden  says,  "  The  legal  authority  of  every 
tribunal  of  exclusive  jurisdiction,  where  no  appeal  lies,  is  of 
necessity  conclusive  upon  every  tribunal ;  and  therefore  the 
judgment  of  the  tribunal  created  by  this  act  is  conclusive  upon 
all  other  tribunals."  So  your  commissioner  is  not  only  a  judge, 
but  he  constitutes  a  tribunal  of  exclusive  jurisdiction,  and  his 
judgment  is  binding  even  upon  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  And  yet,  sir,  you  must  deny  that  this  omnipotent  com 
missioner  is  a  judge,  or  you  must  admit,  that,  in  the  mode  of  his 
appointment,  you  have  flagrantly  violated  the  Constitution  of 
your  country. 


594  JAY'S  WORKS. 

It  has  been  most  wickedly  asserted  by  our  pro-slavery  presses 
and  our  pro-slavery  politicians,  that  the  surrender  of  fugitives 
from  labor  and  fugitives  from  justice  are  similar  proceedings. 
The  surrender  of  a  fugitive  slave  involves  two  questions,  that  of 
identity  and  that  of  property ;  and  the  law  makes  the  decision 
of  the  commissioner  on  both  points  final  and  conclusive  upon 
every  State  and  Federal  court  in  the  land.  The  surrender  of 
a  fugitive  criminal  involves  only  the  question  of  personal  identity. 
The  Governor  of  the  State  issues  his  warrant  for  the  apprehen 
sion  and  delivery  of  a  certain  person  proved  to  him  to  be  charged 
with  felony.  If  the  officer  arrests  the  wrong  person,  he  does  it 
at  his  peril,  and  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  would  immediately 
release  the  person  wrongfully  arrested.  Again,  it  is  most  fraud 
ulently  maintained,  that,  if  the  wrong  person  is  by  the  commis 
sioner  adjudged  a  slave,  he  may  sue  for  his  freedom  in  a  southern 
court !  Should  he  do  so,  the  exhibition  of  the  commissioner's 
certificate  is  by  law  declared  to  be  conclusive  upon  all  tribunals. 
But  even  supposing  that  a  southern  court,  in  defiance  of  law, 
should  go  behind  the  certificate,  how  is  a  free  colored  person 
from  the  North,  working  under  the  lash  on  a  Mississippi  planta 
tion,  to  prove  his  freedom  ?  How  is  he  to  fee  a  lawyer  ?  How 
is  he  to  get  into  court  ?  If  once  there,  where  are  his  witnesses  ? 
They  are  his  friends  and  acquaintances  of  his  own  color  residing 
in  the  North.  How  are  they  to  be  summoned  to  Mississippi  ? 
Should  they  venture  to  enter  the  State,  they  would  be  impris 
oned,  and  perhaps  sold  into  slavery ;  or  even  if  permitted  to 
enter  the  court-room,  their  testimony  would  by  law  be  excluded, 
against  the  claims  of  a  white  man.  How  despicably  profligate, 
then,  is  the  assumption  of  the  advocates  of  your  law,  that  any 
injustice  committed  under  it  would  be  repaired  by  southern 
courts ! 

It  was  not  enough,  it  seems,  that  the  wretched  defendant  in 
this  momentous  issue  should  be  subjected  to  the  jurisdiction  of  a 
judge  unknown  to  the  Constitution,  holding  his  office  by  a  pro 
hibited  tenure,  incapable  of  being  impeached,  and  bribed  to 
decide  in  favor  of  the  plaintiff  by  the  promise  of  double  fees,  but 
the  very  trial  allowed  him  must  be  a  burlesque  on  all  the  forms 


LETTER    TO    SAMUEL    A.    ELIOT.  595 

and  principles  of  juridical  justice.  The  plaintiff,  without  notice  to 
the  defendant,  prepares  himself  for  trial,  and  when  his  affidavits 
or  witnesses  are  all  ready,  he  seizes  the  unsuspecting  victim  in 
the  street,  and  puts  him  instanter  on  his  defence.  Had  the 
wretched  man  been  accused  of  some  atrocious  crime,  he  might 
have  demanded  bail,  and  would  have  been  permitted  to  go  at 
large  to  seek  for  counsel,  to  look  for  witnesses,  and  to  prepare 
for  trial  at  some  future  day,  of  which  he  would  have  due  notice. 
But  no  such  privilege  is  allowed  a  man  who  is  accused  of  owing 
service.  One  of  your  commissioners  has  already  decided  that 
the  law  does  not  permit  him  to  bail  the  prisoner.  The  slave 
power  rides  in  triumph  over  all  the  barriers  erected  by  the 
wisdom  of  ages  for  the  protection  of  human  rights.  The  defen 
dant  is  brought,  generally  in  irons,  before  your  commissioner 
judge,  who  is  required  "  to  hear  and  determine  the  case  of  the 
claimant  in  a  summary  manner."  The  law  seems  not  even  to 
imagine  the  possibility  of  any  defence  being  made  on  the  part 
of  the  defendant.  It  makes  no  provision  for  such  a  defence,  — 
no  assignment  of  counsel,  no  summons  for  witnesses.  We  shall 
see  presently  that  if  the  plaintiff  makes  out  a  primd  facie  title, 
satisfactory  to  the  commission,  it  is  all  the  law  requires.  Let 
me  now  call  your  attention  to  the  practical  working  of  your 
diabolical  law.  A  man  named  Rose  was  lately  seized  at  De 
troit,  and  brought  before  a  commissioner  as  a  fugitive  slave.  I 
copy  from  the  newspaper  report. 

"Mr.  Joy  (counsel  for  defendant)  moved  a  postponement  of  the 
trial  to  a  future  day,  to  enable  Rose  to  produce  his  papers  to  establish 
his  right  to  freedom,  which  papers  he  had  sworn  were  in  Cincinnati. 
The  counsel  for  the  claimant  denied  that  the  commissioner  had  any 
authority  under  the  law  to  grant  a  postponement.  The  commissioner 
agreed  with  the  counsel  for  the  plaintiff,  that  he  had  no  authority  to 

Postpone  the  trial ;  and  he  further  declared,  that,  even  were  the  papers 
y  which  Rose  was  manumitted  present,  he  could  not  under  the  laiu  re 
ceive  them  in  evidence" 

Utterly  devilish  as  was  this  decision,  it  was  sound  law.  The 
plaintiff  had  proved  his  title  satisfactorily,  and  this  being  done, 
the  commissioner  was  bound  by  the  express  words  of  the  law  to 
grant  the  certificate.  He  had  no  right  to  admit  rebutting  evi- 


596  JAY'S  WORKS. 

dence.  It  was  sufficient  to  prove  that  the  prisoner  had  been  the 
slave  of  the  claimant's  father,  and  that  the  claimant  was  the 
heir-at-law  of  his  father.  This  of  itself  was  satisfactory,  and 
therefore  the  commissioner  had  no  right  to  admit  in  evidence 
the  very  deed  of  manumission  granted  by  the  father  to  the 
slave.  The  framers  of  the  law  had  been  as  explicit  as  they 
dared  to  be.  "  Upon  satisfactory  proof  being  made  by  deposi 
tion  or  affidavit,  to  be  taken  and  certified,  &c.,  or  by  other  satis 
factory  testimony  [of  course,  in  writing,  and  ex  parte],  and  with 
proof,  also  by  affidavit,  of  the  identity  of  the  person,"  &c.,  the 
defendant  is  to  be  surrendered.  Not  a  hint  is  given  that  any 
testimony  may  be  received  to  rebut  the  satisfactory  proof  given 
by  the  plaintiff.  You  have,  moreover,  sir,  provided  a  species  of 
evidence  never  before  heard  of  in  the  trial  of  an  issue.  By  the 
tenth  section,  the  claimant  may  go  before  a  judge  or  court  in 
Texas,  and  there  make  proof  by  affidavit  that  his  slave  has 
escaped.  Whereupon,  the  court  or  judge  is  to-  certify  that  the 
proof  is  satisfactory.  A  record  of  this  satisfactory  proof,  together 
with  a  description  of  the  fugitive,  is  to  be  made,  and  a  certified 
transcript  of  this  record,  "  being  exhibited  to  any  judge,  com 
missioner,  or  other  officer  authorized,"  &c.,  "  shall  be  held  and 
taken  to  be  full  and  conclusive  evidence  of  the  fact  of  escape, 
and  that  the  service  or  labor  of  the  person  escaping  is  due  to  the 
party  in  such  record  mentioned."  Here  all  defence  is  taken 
from  the  defendant.  Should  he  summon  a  host  of  witnesses  to 
prove  his  freedom,  not  one  could  be  heard ;  should  he  offer  a 
bill  of  sale  from  the  claimant  to  another,  it  could  not  be  re 
ceived  ;  should  he  produce  a  deed  of  manumission,  acknowledged 
and  certified  in  a  southern  court,  it  would  be  waste  paper.  And 
thus  a  man's  freedom  is  to  be  sacrificed  on  an  affidavit  made  a 
thousand  miles  off.  What,  sir,  would  you  think  of  a  law  that 
would  authorize  the  seizure  and  sale  of  your  property  to  satisfy 
a  debt  which  any  man  in  California  might  think  proper  to  swear, 
before  a  Californian  judge,  was  due  from  you  to  him  ? 

Such,  sir,  is  the  trial  which  you,  the  representative  of  Boston, 
a  descendant  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  "  a  gentleman  of  property  and 
standing,"  have  accorded  to  the  poor  and  oppressed.  Did  the 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL   A.   ELIOT.  597 

Constitution  require  such  a  prostitution  of  justice,  such  an  out 
rage  of  humanity,  at  your  hands  ?  I  need  not  be  told  that  some 
of  your  commissioners  have  not  construed  your  law  as  strictly 
as  did  the  Detroit  functionary.  Thanks  to  the  force  of  public 
opinion,  and  to  the  zeal  of  some  benevolent  lawyers,  whose 
hearts  were  not  padded  with  cotton,  in  some  instances  defend 
ants  have  been  permitted  to  call  witnesses  in  their  behalf;  and 
some  regard  has  been  paid  to  the  ordinary  principles  of  justice. 
But  in  all  such  instances,  the  spirit  of  the  law  and  the  intentions 
of  its  framers  have  been  frustrated. 

And  now  let  us  listen  to  your  "  reason"  for  justifying  all  the 
atrocities  and  abominations  of  your  law.  You  gravely  tell  us, 
"  The  entire  population  of  the  North  has  acquiesced  in  the  law 
of  1793,  without  thinking  itself  exposed  to  the  charge  of  bar 
barity,  and  I  have  only  to  say,  that  I  do  not  think  the  charge 
any  more  just  now."  Certainly,  sir,  the  young  colonial  judge 
could  not  have  given  a  reason  less  logical  or  satisfactory.  You 
must  be  an  inattentive  observer  of  passing  events,  if  you  are 
ignorant  that  the  law  of  1793  has  again  and  again  been  de 
nounced  as  iniquitous,  that  some  of  the  States  have  prohibited 
their  officers  from  assisting  in  its  execution,  that  numberless 
petitions  have  been  presented  to  Congress  for  its  repeal,  and 
that  you  yourself,  instead  of  acquiescing  in  it,  solemnly  de 
clared  it  to  be  the  duty  of  Congress  so  far  to  alter  the  law,  as 
to  grant  the  alleged  fugitive  a  trial  by  jury.  Yet  the  law  of 
1793,  wicked  as  it  was,  was  justice  and  mercy  compared  with 
yours.  The  trials  under  that  were  almost  invariably  before 
judges  of  the  State  courts,  not  appointed  like  your  commissioners 
for  the  vile  and  only  purpose  of  reducing  their  fellow-men  to 
bondage.  These  judges  were  not  confined  to  ex  parte  evidence, 
were  not  compelled  to  receive  "  as  full  and  conclusive"  affidavits 
made  in  distant  States,  and  by  unknown  persons.  For  the  most 
part,  they  honestly  endeavored,  by  a  patient  investigation 
according  to  the  ordinary  rules  of  evidence,  and  by  holding  the 
plaintiff  to  strict  legal  proof,  to  supply  the  want  of  a  jury. 

David  Paul  Brown,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  in  a  letter  of  last 
November,  affirms  that  for  the  last  thirty  years  he  has  been 
51 


598  JAY'S  WORKS. 

engaged  as  counsel  in  almost  every  important  fugitive  case 
brought  before  the  judges  and  courts  of  Philadelphia,  and  he 
tells  us,  "  thanks  to  those  upright  and  impartial  and  independent 
judges  by  whom  the  rights  of  the  parties  were  finally  deter 
mined,"  he  knows  of  no  instance  in  which  a  colored  person  was, 
in  his  opinion,  wrongfully  surrendered.  But  he  adds,  "  I  have 
known  HUNDREDS  who  have  been  illegally  and  unjustly  claimed." 
This  experienced  lawyer,  commenting  on  your  law,  justly  says  it 
allows  "  ex  parte  testimony  to  be  received  against  the  alleged 
fugitive,  which  upon  no  principle  known  to  the  common  law 
could  be  received  upon  the  claim  to  a  horse  or  a  dog."  About 
four  weeks  after  the  date  of  this  letter,  Mr.  Brown  was  called 
to  defend  an  alleged  fugitive  "  illegally  and  unjustly  claimed," 
not  before  one  of  the  "  upright  and  impartial  and  independent" 
Pennsylvania  judges,  but  before  one  of  your  ten-dollar  slave- 
catching  judges.  I  beg  you  to  mark  the  result. 

On  the  21st  of  December,  a  colored  man  was  arrested  in  the 
street  in  Philadelphia,  without  warrant,  and  accused  of  stealing 
chickens.  He  was  thrust  into  a  carriage,  driven  to  the  State 
House,  carried  into  an  upper  room,  and  handcuffed.  In  this 
state  he  was  detained  till  a  commissioner  arrived.  The  name  of 
this  executor  of  your  law  is  worthy  of  remembrance.  EDAVARD 
D.  INGRAHAM  ought  to  be  as  much  endeared  to  slave-catchers, 
as  Judge  Jeffries  was  to  James  the  Second. 

By  some  means,  the  arrest  became  known,  and  counsel  ap 
peared  for  the  prisoner.  Your  commissioner  was  informed  that 
the  prisoner  had  only  been  seized  an  hour  and  a  half  before, 
and  had  not  heard  the  charge  against  him  ;  that  his  counsel  had 
had  no  time  to  learn  the  plaintiff's  case,  nor  to  prepare  for  the 
defence ;  that  there  were  persons  residing  at  a  distance,  some  in 
New  Jersey  and  some  in  Wilmington,  who  would  be  important 
witnesses  in  his  behalf.  On  these  grounds,  a  motion  was  made 
for  a  continuance.  And  what,  sir,  do  you  suppose  was  the  re 
ply  made  by  the  slave-catching  judge  to  this  motion  ?  "  THE 

HEARING    IS  TO    BE   A  SUMMARY  ONE  :     LET  IT  PROCEED."      No 

doubt  you  fully  participate  in  Mr.  Webster's  indignation  against 
Austrian  barbarity ;  but  see  no  barbarity  in  this  accursed  pro- 


LETTER  TO    SAMUEL    A.    ELIOT.  599 

ceeding  against  a  colored  American.  The  hearing  did  proceed, 
and  James  S.  Price,  on  behalf  of  the  plaintiff,  swore  that  the 
prisoner  was  Emery  Rice,  the  man  claimed,  but  knew  nothing 
further  about  his  being  a  slave,  except  that  he  had  seen  him 
riding  the  claimant's  horse  ;  had  heard  it  said  the  prisoner  was 
a  slave.  This  was  the  amount  of  the  testimony  on  behalf  of 
the  claimant.  Any  honest  jury,  nay,  any  honest  judge,  would 
instantly  have  decided  in  favor  of  the  prisoner.  Not  so  MR. 
EDWARD  D.  INGRAHAM.  The  counsel  for  the  defendant  asked 
again  for  a  postponement,  and  founded  the  motion  on  the  oath 
of  the  defendant,  that  he  could  procure  six  persons,  naming 
them,  to  testify  to  his  freedom.  A  delay  of  ONE  HOUR  was 
asked  for.  This  was  refused,  and  the  judge  (!)  sent  for  a  cer 
tificate  to  sign.  During  the  delay  thus  occasioned,  one  of  the 
six  persons  named  by  the  defendant  appeared,  and  swore  that  he 
had  known  the  prisoner  all  his  life.  That  he  was  not  Emery 
Rice,  but  Adam  Gibson ;  that  he  was  a  free  man,  having  been 
manumitted  by  the  will  of  his  late  master.  Mr.  Brown  pro 
duced  a  copy  of  the  will  of  the  late  master,  and  it  so  far  con 
firmed  the  testimony  of  the  witness.  Another  person  in  the 
crowd  now  came  forward,  and  swore  that  he  also  knew  the  pris 
oner,  and  that  he  was  a  free  person,  and  that  he  was  Adam  Gib 
son.  But  all  was  in  vain.  The  commissioner  signed  the  certi 
ficate,  and,  with  an  obtuseness  of  intellect  which  marked  him  as 
a  fit  subject  for  a  commission  of  lunacy,  declared,  "  He  had  no 
doubt  of  the  identity  of  the  prisoner  with  the  slave  Emery  Rice, 
and  that  all  other  proceedings  must  be  before  the  courts  of 
Maryland,  whither  he  would  send  him."  *  And  so  the  prisoner, 
without  seeing  his  wife  and  children,  whom  he  had  that  morning 
parted  from  unsuspicious  of  danger  and  unconscious  of  crime, 
was  hurried  off  at  the  expense  of  our  glorious  model  republic, 
under  an  escort  of  officers,  wlio  delivered  him,  not  to  the  courts 
of  Maryland,  but  to  Mr.  William  S.  Knight,  the  reputed  owner. 
But  Mr.  Knight  told  the  officers,  "You  have  brought  me  a 
\vrong  man ;  this  is  not  Emery  Rice ;  this  man  is  no  slave  of 

*  See  report  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  25th.  December,  1850. 


600  JAY'S  WORKS. 

mine."  And  so  Adam  Gibson  returned  to  Philadelphia,  and  is 
now  a  living  illustration  of  the  abominable  iniquity  of  one  of  the 
most  accursed  laws  to  be  found  in  the  statute-book  of  any  civil 
ized  nation. 

You  do  not  think  your  law  more  barbarous  than  that  of  1793. 
Let  me  further  enlighten  you.  Judge  McLean  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  in  his  opinion  deliveredlast  May  in  the  case  of  Norris  vs. 
Newton  et  «/.,  remarks,  "  In  regard  to  the  arrest  of  fugitives  from 
labor,  the  law  [act  of  1793]]  does  not  impose,  any  active  duties  on 
our  citizens  generally ; "  and  he  argues  in  defence  of  the  law, 
that  "  it  gives  no  one  a  just  right  to  complain ;  he  has  only  to 
refrain  from  an  express  violation  of  the  law."  In  other  words, 
the  law  only  required  individuals  to  be  passive  spectators  of  a 
horrible  outrage,  and  did  not  compel  them  to  be  active  partici 
pators  in  other  men's  villany.  Now,  what  says  your  law  ?  Why, 
that  every  commissioner  may  appoint  as  many  official  slave- 
catchers  as  he  pleases,  and  that  each  of  these  menials  may 
"  summon  and  call  to  their  aid  the  by-stcmders  or^xme  comitatus 
of  the  proper  county,  when  necessary  to  insure  a  faithful  observ 
ance  of  the  clause  of  the  Constitution  referred  to  in  conformity 
with  the  provisions  of  this  act,  AND  ALL  GOOD  CITIZENS  ARE 

HEREBY    COMMANDED  TO    AID  AND    ASSIST   ill    the    prompt    and 

efficient  execution  of  this  law,  whenever  their  services  may  be 
required."  And  what  is  the  fate  you  have  provided  for  the 
"good  citizen,"  who,  believing  slavery  to  be  sinful,  cannot,  in 
the  fear  of  God,  "  aid  and  assist "  in  making  a  fellow-man  a 
slave  ?  .Any  person  "  who  shall  aid,  abet,  or  assist "  the  fugitive, 
"  directly  or  indirectly,"  (cunning  words)  to  escape  from  such 
claimant,  as,  for  instance,  refusing  to  join  in  a  slave-hunt  when 
required,  shall  be  fined  not  exceeding  $1000,  be  imprisoned  six 
months,  and  pay  the  claimant  $1000.  I  hope,  sir,  you  are  now 
able  to  perceive  that  your  law  has  a  preeminence  in  barbarity 
over  its  predecessor.  And  now,  sir,  please  to  recollect,  that 
party  discipline,  aided  by  the  influence  of  Messrs.  Webster  and 
Clay,  and  the  factory  and  cotton  interests  of  Boston  and  New 
York,  could  not  procure  for  this  atrocious  law  the  votes  of  one- 
half  the  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  Of  two 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL   A.    ELIOT.  601 

hundred  and  thirty-two  members,  only  one  hundred  and  nine 
dared  to  place  their  names  on  an  enduriug  and  shameful  record, 
while  many  basely  deserted  their  seats,  fearing  alike  to  vote 
either  for  or  against  it.  You,  sir,  following  Mr.  Webster's  advice, 
"  conquered  your  prejudices,"  and  in  company  with  two  more 
northern  Whigs,  one  of  them  a  native  of  Virginia,  cast  your 
vote  for  this  bill  of  abominations.  But,  although  you  voted  for 
the  law,  you  do  not  wish  your  constituents  to  suppose  you  ap 
proved  of  it.  "  It  will  not,  I  trust,  be  inferred  from  any  thing 
I  have  said,  that  I  consider  the  law  which  has  passed  unexcep 
tionable.  There  are  amendments  which  I  strongly  desire  to  be 
introduced  into  it."  What  are  the  exceptionable  features  of  the 
law,  what  are  the  amendments  you  desire,  you  refrain  from 
specifying.  But  you  tell  us  that  you  would  have  labored  for 
those  amendments  "  had  it  been  possible,  but  every  body  knows 
that  it  was  impracticable."  You  allude  to  the  previous  question, 
which  prevented  both  discussion  and  amendments.  But  why, 
then,  did  you  vote  for  an  objectionable  bill  which  could  not  be 
amended  ?  Here,  again,  we  have  one  of  your  unfortunate 
reasons.  "  I  deem  conformity  to  the  design  of  the  Constitution 
more^important  than  the  objectionable  details  of  the  bill."  So, 
by  your  own  confession,  had  there  been  no  previous  question, 
you  would  have  swallowed  the  bill,  with  all  its  objectionable  de 
tails,  out  of  reverence  for  the  design  of  the  Constitution,  although 
that  design  neither  embraced  nor  required  a  single  one  of  those 
details.  Did  you,  sir,  vote  against  the  previous  question  ?  On 
this  point  you  are  silent,  and  the  minutes  afford  no  information ; 
but  if  you  did,  your  vote  was  a  most  remarkable  aberration 
from  your  pro-slavery  course  in  Congress.  After  the  previous 
question  had  been  seconded,  it  was  moved  to  lay  the  bill  on  the 
table.  Had  this  motion  been  carried,  you  might  have  introduced 
another  bill,  omitting  the  "objectionable  details,"  but  you  voted 
with  the  slave-holders.  The  slave-holders  then  moved  that  the 
bill  be  read  a  third  time.  Had  this  been  lost,  there  would  have 
been  a  chance  of  correcting  the  "  objectionable  details."  Again 
you  voted  with  the  slave-holders,  and  a  third  time,  also,  on  the 
main  question. 

51* 


602  JAY'S  WORKS. 

I  will  now,  sir,  call  your  attention  to  the  disastrous  influence 
which  your  law  has  exerted  on  the  moral  sense  of  the  commu 
nity.  Says  Coleridge,  "  To  dogmatize  a  crime,  that  is,  to  teach 
it  as  a  doctrine,  is  itself  a  crime."  Of  this  crime  of  dogmatizing 
crime,  Mr.  Webster,  and  most  of  our  cotton  politicians,  and,  alas ! 
many  of  our  fashionable,  genteel  divines,  are  guilty ;  nor  are  you 
innocent,  sir,  who  in  your  law  require  "GOOD  citizens"  to  aid 
in  hunting  and  enslaving  their  fellow-men. 

In  former  years,  and  before  Mr.  Webster  had  undergone  his 
metamorphosis,  he  thus,  in  a  speech  at  New  York,  expressed 
himself  in  regard  to  the  anti-slavery  agitation  at  the  North : 

"  It  (slavery)  has  arrested  the  religious  feeling  of  the  country ;  it  has 
taken  strong  hold  of  the  consciences  of  men.  He  is  a  rash  man  indeed, 
little  conversant  with  human  nature,  and  especially  has  he  a  very 
erroneous  estimate  of  the  character  of  the  people  of  this  country,  who 
supposes  that  a  feeling  of  this  kind  is  to  be  trifled  with  or  despised" 

This  gentleman  has  become  the  rash  man  shadowed  forth  in 
his  speech,  and  is  trifling  with  and  despising  the  religious  feeling 
of  the  North.  In  his  street  speech  in  Boston,  in  favor  of  slave- 
hunting,  he  avowed  that  he  wras  well  aware  that  the  return  of 
fugitives  "  is  a  topic  that  must  excite  prejudices,"  and  that*the 
question  for  Massachusetts  to  decide  was,  "whether  she  will 
conquer  her  own  prejudice."  In  his  letter  to  the  citizens  of 
Newburyport,  he  sneeringly  alludes  to  the  "  cry  that  there  is  a 
rule  for  the  government  of  public  men  and  private  men  which  is 
superior  to  the  Constitution,"  and  he  scornfully  intimates  that 
Mr.  Horace  Mann,  who  had  objected  to  your  law  as  wicked, 
would  do  well  "  to  appeal  at  once,  as  others  do,  to  that  high  au 
thority  which  sits  enthroned  above  the  Constitution  and  the 
laws ; "  and  he  gives  an  extract  from  a  nameless  English  cor 
respondent,  in  which  the  writer  remarks,  "  Religion  is  an  excel 
lent  thing  except  in  politics,"  a  maxim  exceedingly  palatable  to 
very  many  of  our  politicians.  Aware  that  the  impiety  of  this 
sentiment  was  not  exactly  suited  to  the  meridian  of  Massachu 
setts,  he  says  his  friend  undoubtedly  meant  "  a  fantastical  notion 
of  religion."  Of  course,  he  regards  the  religious  prejudice 
against  hunting  and  enslaving  men  as  springing  from  a  fantastic 
notion  of  religion.  Yet,  with  a  strange  fatuity,  he  confesses  that 


LETTER    TO    SAMUEL    A.    ELIOT.  603 

"  the  teaching  of  Christ  and  his  apostles  is  a  sure  guide  to  duty 
in  politics,  as  in  any  other  concern  of  life,"  utterly  oblivious  of 
the  fact,  that  the  "  higher  law,"  which  he  ridicules,  was  pro 
claimed  in  that  very  teaching.  Christ  taught,  "  Fear  not  them 
(magistrates)  who  kill  the  body,  but  are  not  able  to  kill  the  soul} 
but  rather  fear  HIM  who  is  able  to  destroy  both  soul  and  body 
in  hell."  What  taught  the  apostles  ?  "  We  must  obey  God5 
rather  than  man."  Such  teaching  it  was,  that  gave  birth  to  "the 
noble  army  of  martyrs,"  and  this  very  teaching  will  induce  mul 
titudes  of  Christians  at  the  present  day  to  hazard  fines  and  im 
prisonment  rather  than  obey  the  wicked  injunctions  of  your  law. 
It  was  this  same  teaching  which,  on  the  publication  of  your  law, 
induced  numerous  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  various  eccle 
siastical  assemblies,  to  denounce  it  as  wicked,  and  obedience  to 
it  as  rebellion  against  God.  This  expression  of  religious  senti 
ment  alarmed  both  our  politicians  and  our  merchants.  How 
could  the  one  expect  southern  votes,  or  the  other  southern 
trade,  if  the  religious  people  at  the  North  refused  to  catch 
slaves?  Hence  arose  a  mighty  outcry  against  the  blending  of 
religion  with  politics,  and  most  fearful  were  the  anathemas 
against  the  parsons  who  desecrated  the  pulpit  by  preaching  pol 
itics,  that  is,  preaching  that  people  ought  to  obey  God  rather 
than  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act.  Such  men  were,  in  the  language 
of  one  of  the  New  York  commercial  journals,  "  clerical  preach 
ers  of  rebellion,"  and  their  congregations  were  exhorted  to  "  leave 
them  to  naked  walls."  But  the  leaven  was  at  work,  and  an 
antidote  was  greatly  wanted.  Supply  of  course  follows  demand, 
and  forthwith  there  was  a  sudden  advent  of  cotton  clergymen, 
preaching  against  rebellion,  and  cunningly  confounding  a  con 
scientious,  passive  disobedience  with  forcible  resistance.  Their 
sermons,  in  which  virtually 

"  The  image  of  God  was  accounted  as  base, 
And  the  image  of  Csesar  set  up  in  its  place," 

were  received  with  mighty  applause  by  the  very  men  who  had 
been  striving  to  save  the  pulpit  from  all  contaminating  contact 
with  politics,  and  the  reverend  preachers  of  cotton  politics  were 
elevated  into  patriots,  and  their  disquisitions  against  the  "  higher 


604  JAY'S  WORKS. 

law"  were  scattered  on  the  wings  of  the  commercial  press 
broadcast  over  the  land.*  The  theology  which  holds  that  the 

*  In  one  of  the  most  celebrated  of  these  sermons,  we  find  the  following 
broad  assertion  :  —  "If  God  has  left  to  men  the  choice  of  the  kind  of  gov 
ernment  they  will  have,  he  has  not  left  it  to  their  choice  whether  they  will 
obey  human  government  or  not.  He  has  commanded  that  obedience."  Our 
rulers  command  us,  when  required  by  a  commissioner's  agent,  to  aid  in  hunt 
ing  and  seizing  our  innocent  fellow-men,  and  delivering  them  into  the  hands 
of  their  task-masters.  That  the  reverend  preacher  would  render  a  cheerful 
obedience  to  such  a  mandate,  there  is  little  doubt.  We  read  that  the  Jewish 
rulers,  "  The  chief  priests  and  Pharisees,  had  given  a  commandment,  that,  if 
any  one  knew  where  he  (Jesus)  was,  he  should  show  it,  that  they  might  take 
him."  Strange  is  it,  that  of  the  college  of  apostles  there  was  but  one 
"  good  citizen,"  who  rendered  obedience  to  the  powers  ordained  by  God  ;  all 
the  others  suffered  death  for  their  wilful,  deliberate  defiance  of  the  laws  and 
the  magistrates  of  the  land.  As  a  specimen  of  the  teaching  of  these  cotton 
divines,  I  quote  from  this  same  admired  sermon  the  following  precious  piece 
of  information,  viz. :  —  "  Nor  is  it  true  that  the  fugitive  slave  is  made  an 
outlaw,  and  on  that  ground  justifiable  for  bloody  and  murderous  resistance  of 
law.  He  is  under  the  protection  of  laio  ;  and  if  any  man  injures  him,  or  kills 
him,  the  law  will  avenge  him,  just  as  soon  as  it  would  you  or  me."  To  deny 
the  truth  of  this  solemn  declaration,  made  in  the  house  of  God,  would  be,  in 
the  reverend  gentlemen's  estimation,  but  a  portion  of  "  that  perpetual  abuse 
of  our  southern  brethren  "  of  which  he  complains.  He  must,  however,  per 
mit  us  to  call  his  attention  to  the  following  advertisements  respecting  a  FUGI 
TIVE  SLAVE,  published  in  the  Wilmington  Journal  of  the  18th  of  October  last, 
in  pursuance  of  a  law  of  the  State  of  North  Carolina. 

'  "  State  of  North  Carolina,  New  Hanover  County.  —  Whereas  complaint  upon 
oath  hath  this  day  has  been  made  to  us,  two  of  the  justices  of  the  peace  for 
the  State  and  County  aforesaid,  by  Guilford  Horn,  of  Edgecombe  County, 
that  a  certain  male  slave  belonging  to  him,  named  HARRY,  —  a  carpenter  by 
trade,  about  40  years  old,  5  feet  5  inches  high,  or  thereabouts,  yellow  com 
plexion,  stout  built,  with  a  scar  on  his  left  leg  (from  the  cut  of  an  axe,)  has 
very  thick  lips,  eyes  deep  sunk  in  his  head,  forehead  very  square,  tolerably 
loud  voice,  has  lost  one  or  two  of  his  upper  teeth,  and  has  a  very  dark  spot  on 
his  jaw,  supposed  to  be  a  mark,  —  hath  absented  himself  from  his  master's  ser 
vice,  and  is  supposed  to  be  lurking  about  in  this  county,  committing  acts  of 
felony  or  other  misdeeds :  These  are,  therefore,  in  the  name  of  the  State 
aforesaid,  to  command  said  slave  forthwith  to  surrender  himself,  and  return 
home  to  his  master ;  and  we  do  hereby,  by  virtue  of  the  act  of  Assembly  in 
such  case  made  and  provided,  intimate  and  declare  that  if  the  said  slave  Harry 
doth  not  surrender  himself  and  return  home  immediately  after  the  publication 
of  these  presents,  that  any  person  or  persons  may  KILL  and  DESTROY  the  said 
slave  by  such  means  as  he  may  think  fit,  without  accusation  or  impeachment 
of  any  crime  or  offence  for  so  doing,  and  without  incurring  any  penalty  or  for 
feiture  thereby. 

"  Given  under  our  hands  and  seals,  this  29th  day  of  June,  1850. 

JAMES  T.  MILLER,  J.  P. 

W.  C.  BENTTENCOURT,  J.  P." 

"ONE  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY-FIVE  DOLLARS  REWARD  mil  be  paid  for  the 

delivery  of  said  HARRY  to  me  at  Tonsott  Depot,  Edgecombe  County,  or  for 
his  confinement  in  any  jail  in  the  State,  so  that  I  can  get  him  ;  or  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty  dollars  will  be  given  for  his  HEAD.  He  was  lately  heard  from 
in  Newbern,  where  he  called  himself  Henry  Barnes  (or  Burns)  and  will  be 
likely  to  continue  the  name  or  assume  that  of  Coppage  or  Farmer.  He  has  a 
free  mulatto  woman  for  a  wife,  by  the  name  of  Sally  Bozeman,  who  has  lately 
removed  to  Wilmington,  and  lives  in  that  part  of  the  town  called  Texas, 
where  he  will  likely  be  lurking. 

"  GUILFORD  HORN. 
"  June  29,  1850." 


LETTER    TO    SAMUEL    A.    ELIOT.  605 

allegiance  we  owe  to  civil  government  binds  the  conscience  to 
obedience  to  its  mandates,  is  the  same  with  which  Shakspeare's 
assassin  quieted  his  scruples  when  acting  under  the  royal  com 
mand,  —  "  If  a  king  bid  a  man  be  a  villain,  he  is  bound  by  the 
indenture  of  his  oath  to  be  one." 

It  is  amusing  to  observe  with  what  awful  reverence  our  mer 
chants  and  brokers  regard  the  sanctity  of  human  law,  when  it 
commands  them  to  catch  slaves ;  a  reverence  not  always  felt  by 
them  for  the  statute  of  usury  when  the  money  market  is  tight. 

A  vast  deal  of  nonsense  and  impiety  has  been  recently  thrown 
upon  the  public  in  relation  to  the  "  higher  law,"  by  men  who  had 
political  and  pecuniary  interests  depending  on  the  good-will  of 
the  slave-holders.  The  whole  subject  is  perfectly  simple  and  in 
telligible,  and  has  been  intentionally  misrepresented  and  mys 
tified. 

Human  government  is  indispensable  to  the  happiness  and 
progress  of  human  society.  Hence  God,  in  his  wisdom  and 
benevolence,  wills  its  existence ;  and  in  this  sense,  and  this 
alone,  the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  by  him.  But  civil  gov 
ernment  cannot  exist,  if  each  individual  may,  at  his  pleasure, 
forcibly  resist  its  injunctions.  Therefore,  Christians  are  re 
quired  to  submit  to  the  powers  that  be,  whether  a  Nero  or  a 
slave-catching  Congress.  But  obedience  to  the  civil  ruler  often 
necessarily  involves  rebellion  to  God.  Hence  we  are  warned 
by  Christ  and  his  apostles,  and  by  the  example  of  saints  in  all 
ages,  in  such  cases,  not  to  obey,  but  to  submit  and  suffer.  We 
are  to  hold  fast  our  allegiance  to  Jehovah,  but  at  the  same  time 
not  take  up  arms  to  defend  ourselves  against  the  penalties  im 
posed  by  the  magistrate  for  our  disobedience.  Thus  the  Divine 
sovereignty  and  the  authority  of  human  government  are  both 
maintained.  Revolution  is  not  the  abolition  of  human  govern 
ment,  but  a  change  in  its  form,  and  its  lawfulness  depends  on 
circumstances.  What  was  the  "  den "  in  which  John  Bunyan 
had  his  glorious  vision  of  the  Pilgrim's  Progress  ?  A  prison  to 
which  he  was  confined  for  years  for  refusing  obedience  to 
human  laws.  And  what  excuse  did  this  holy  man  make  for 
conduct  now  denounced  as  wicked  and  rebellious  ?  "I  cannot 


606  JAY'S  WORKS. 

obey,  but  I  can  suffer."  The  Quakers  have  from  the  first 
refused  to  obey  the  law  requiring  them  to  bear  arms  ;  yet  have 
they  never  been  vilified  by  our  politicians  and  cotton  clergymen, 
as  rebels  against  the  powers  that  be,  nor  sneered  at  for  their 
acknoAvledgment  of  a  "  higher  "  than  human  law.  The  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  after  requiring  us  to  love  God  and  our  neighbor, 
added,  "  There  is  none  other  commandment  greater  than  these  ; " 
no,  not  even  a  slave-catching  act  of  Congress,  which  requires  us 
to  hunt  our  neighbor,  that  he  may  be  reduced  to  the  condition 
of  a  beast  of  burden.  Rarely  has  the  religious  faith  of  the  com 
munity  received  so  rude  a  shock  as  that  which  has  been  given 
it  by  your  horrible  law,  and  the  principles  advanced  by  its 
political  and  clerical  supporters.  Cruelty,  oppression,  and 
injustice  are  elevated  into  virtues,  while  justice,  mercy  and 
compassion  are  ridiculed  and  vilified. 

But  lately,  the  business  of  catching  slaves  was  regarded  as 
one  of  the  lowest  grades  of  scoundrelism.  Now,  great  pains  are 
taken  by  our  gentlemen  of  property  and  standing  to  ennoble  it ; 
and  men  of  eminence  in  the  legal  profession  are  stooping  to  take 
the  wages  of  iniquity,  and  lending  themselves  to  consign  to  the 
horrors  of  American  slavery,  men  whom  they  know  to  be  inno 
cent  of  crime.  Nay,  we  have  seen  in  New  York  a  committee 
of  gentlemen  actually  raising  money  by  voluntary  contributions 
to  furnish  a  slave-catcher  with  professional  services  gratis  ;  —  a 
free  gift,  not  to  mitigate  human  misery,  but  to  aggravate  the 
hardships  of  the  poor  and  friendless  a  thousandfold.  Can  men 
of  standing  in  the  community  thus  openly  espouse  the  cause  of 
cruelty  and  oppression,  and,  from  commercial  and  political 
views,  trample  upon  every  principle  of  Christian  benevolence, 
without  corrupting  the  moral  sense  of  the  people  to  the  extent 
of  their  influence  ?  When  gentlemen  club  together  to  hire  a 
lawyer  to  assist  a  slave-catcher,  no  wonder  that  the  commercial 
press  should  teem  with  the  vilest  abuse  of  all  who  feel  sympa 
thy  for  the  fugitive.  One  of  the  most  malignant  pro-slavery 
journals  in  New  York  is  edited  by  your  colleague  and  fellow 
Whig,  the  Honorable  Mr.  Brooks,  and  his  brother.  I  copy, 
sir,  for  your  consideration,  the  following  article  from  the  New 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL    A.    ELIOT.  607 

York  Evening  Express,  published  during  the  late  trial  in  that 
city  of  Henry  Long,  an  alleged  fugitive  : 

"  Two  fugitive  cases  are  now  before  our  courts ;  one  that  of  the  negro 
Henry  Long,  and  the  other  that  of  three  white  Frenchmen,  under  the 
extradition  treaty  with  France.  The  negro's  case  makes  a  great  deal 
of  noise,  because  he  is  black ;  the  three  white  Frenchmen  are  hardly 
heard  of.  The  three  white  French  people  pay  their  own  counsel ; 
they  may  have  committed  a  robbery  in  Paris,  or  may  not ;  are  perhaps 
innocent,  though  possibly  guilty ;  but  here  they  are  on  trial,  with  no 
chance  of  a  trial  before  a  jury  !  If  they  are  sent  back,  and  are  con 
victed,  they  go  to  the  galleys,  and  are  slaves  for  life.  The  negro, 
Henry  Long,  lucky  fellow  for  being  black !  lives  in  clover  here,  and 
has  one  of  the  best  speakers  in  the  city,  on  the  best  fee,  interests  all  the 
abolitionists  in  all  quarters,  who  contribute  money  freely  for  his  de 
fence,  and  if  he  is  returned,  leaves  here  canonized  as  a  martyr,  and 
goes  back  to  the  condition  he  was  born  in,  to  fatten  on  hog  and  hominy, 
better  fed  and  better  clothed  than  nine  tenths  of  the  farm  laborers  in 
Great  Britain.  Another  consideration  strikes  us,  and  that  is,  the  cost 
of  defending  Long  will  buy  his  freedom  three  times  over.  The  very 
fee  of  his  counsel  would  purchase  his  freedom.  But  to  buy  him  and 
pay  for  him,  not  steal  him,  would  leave  no  room  for  agitation.  And 
where  does  this  money  come  from,  that  cares  for  Long  and  neglects 
the  three  Frenchmen  ?  From  England,  in  the  main,  we  believe.  The 
abolitionists  here  do  not  contribute  it" 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  the  Satanic  press  a  more  clumsy 
piece  of  malignant  falsehood.  "We  have  here,  from  the  same 
pen  and  in  the  same  article,  the  assertions,  that  the  abolitionists 
in  all  quarters,  we  are  assured,  "  contribute  money  freely  for  his 
defence ; "  and  then  the  money,  it  is  believed,  comes  mainly  from 
England.  "  The  abolitionists  here  do  not  contribute  it."  To 
contribute  money  for  the  legal  defence  of  a  fugitive  is  stealing 
him.  The  cost  of  defending  Long  amounted  to  three  times  the 
price  that  would  be  asked  for  him.  Long,  after  his  return,  sold 
in  Richmond  for  $750 ;  of  course  his  defence  cost  $2,250.  To 
whom,  and  for  what  was  this  money  paid  ?  Long  could  not  be 
bought  in  New  York,  all  advances  for  the  purpose  being  peremp 
torily  repulsed.  His  counsel's  fee  was  $300,  being  all  contrib 
uted  in  New  York,  and  about  $100  of  it  being  raised  by  the  free 
colored  people.  While  $300  were  thus  raised  to  give  Long  the 
chance  of  a  legal  defence,  gentlemen  of  the  New  York  Union 
Safety  Committee,  of  which  your  colleague  has  the  honor  of 
being  a  member,  contributed  $500  to  aid  the  slave-catcher  in 
reducing  to  bondage  a  man  unaccused  of  crime ! 


608  JAY'S  WORKS. 

I  am  inclined  to  believe,  sir,  that  you  have  little  cause  to  con 
gratulate  yourself,  that,  in  voting  for  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
you  have  advanced  the  cause  of  truth,  justice,  humanity,  or 
religion. 

A  refusal  to  obey  your  wicked  law  has  been  artfully  repre 
sented  as  a  determination  to  resist  its  execution.  Very  few  of 
our  white  population  have  intimated  the  most  distant  intention  of 
resorting  to  illegal  violence.  Very  many  ecclesiastical  bodies 
have  denounced  your  law  as  so  iniquitous,  that  they  could  not 
in  conscience  obey  it ;  but  I  challenge  you  to  point  to  a  single 
instance  in  which  such  a  body  has  recommended  forcible  resist 
ance.  To  the  vast  accumulation  of  impiety  uttered  in  support  of 
your  law  has  been  added  a  fiendish  ridicule  of  the  benevolent 
and  Christian  feeling  arrayed  against  it.  It  is  true,  that  some 
of  our  free  blacks  and  fugitives  have  declared,  that  they  would, 
at  the  hazard  of  their  lives,  defend  themselves  against  the  kid 
napper.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  wisdom  of  such  a 
determination,  be  assured  it  will  tax  your  logical  powers  to  the 
utmost  to  prove  that  God  has  conferred  the  right  of  self-defence 
exclusively  upon  white  men.  The  slave  is  a  prisoner  of  war, 
and  instead  of  being  protected  by  law,  he  is  subjected  by  it  to 
every  conceivable  outrage.  When  murdered,  his  owner  seeks 
in  the  courts  damages  at  the  hands  of  the  murderer,  as  he  would 
for  the  death  of  his  horse.  For  no  possible  injury  committed 
on  his  person,  either  by  his  owner  or  others,  can  he  receive  com 
pensation,  although  the  law  may  profess  to  punish  cruelty  to  him 
as  to  other  animals.  Now  it  has  never  been  regarded  as  im 
moral,  by  those  who  admit  the  right  of  self-defence,  for  a  pris 
oner  of  war  to  effect  his  escape  by  slaying  his  guard.  All 
this,  I  know,  will  horrify  a  certain  class  of  our  divines  and 
politicians.  But  let  them  be  patient.  I  am  not  laying  down  a 
doctrine,  but  stating  facts,  which  they  may  disprove  if  they  can. 
Let  them  remember  that  all  the  slavery  which  they  delight  to 
find  in  the  Bible  was  the  slavery  of  white  men,  and  that  the 
Roman  slaves  in  the  time  of  Christ,  whose  bondage,  we  are  told, 
he  and  his  apostles  approved,  were  held  by  the  right  of  war. 
White  Americans  have  been  held  as  slaves  by  the  same  holy 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL   A.    ELIOT.  609 

and  Scriptural  tenure.  Let  us,  then,  inquire  bow  the  escape 
and  resistance  of  white  slaves  have  heretofore  been  regarded. 
In  1535,  the  white  slaves  in  Tunis  alone  amounted  to  twenty 
thousand.  Cervantes,  who  had  himself  been  a  slave  in  Algiers, 
says  in  his  writings,  "For  liberty  we  ought  to  risk  life  itself; 
slavery  being  the  greatest  evil  that  can  fall  to  the  lot  of  man." 
Acting  upon  this  precept,  he  himself,  while  a  slave,  planned  a 
general  insurrection  of  the  slaves.  Yet  Cervantes  was  recog 
nized  as  a  faithful  son  of  the  Church,  and  the  license  prefixed 
to  his  works  declares  they  contain  nothing  contrary  to  the  Chris 
tian  religion.  The  Annual  Register  for  1763  announces,  that, 
"  last  month,  the  Christian  slaves  at  Algiers,  to  the  number  of 
four  thousand,  rose  and  killed  their  guards,  and  massacred  all 
who  came  in  their  way."  The  insurrection  was  suppressed,  but 
no  one  in  Europe  denounced  the  insurgents  as  bloodthirsty 
wretches,  nor  regarded  their  effort  as  an  impious  and  anti-Chris 
tian  rebellion  against  the  powers  ordained  of  God.  In  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth,  one  John  Fox,  a  slave  on  the  Barbary  coast,  slew 
his  master,  and,  effecting  his  escape  with  a  number  of  his  fellow- 
slaves,  arrived  in  England.  The  queen,  instead  of  looking  upon 
him  as  a  murderer,  testified  her  admiration  of  his  exploit  by 
allowing  him  a  pension.* 

Washington  Madison  performed  a  similar  exploit  on  board  an 
American  coast  slaver,  and  arrived,  with  a  large  number  of  his 
fellow-slaves,  in  the  British  West  Indies.  Mr.  Webster,  then 
Secretary  of  State,  officially  demanded  of  the  British  government 
the  surrender  of  this  heroic  man  as  a  MURDERER. 

In  1793,  there  were  one  hundred  and  fifteen  American  slaves 
in  Algiers,  held  by  as  perfect  and  Scriptural  a  tenure  as  any  slave 
is  now  held  in  any  part  of  our  wide  republic.  Had  one  of  these 
slaves  made  his  escape  by  killing  his  Algerine  master,  would 
any  of  our  patriotic  divines,  would  any  gentleman  of  the  "  New 
York  Union  Committee  of  Safety,"  would  even  Mr.  Webster 
himself,  have  pronounced  him  a  murderer  ?  Had  the  captain 
of  a  British  ship  favored  his  escape,  and  given  him  a  passage  to 

*  For  the  facts  on  this  subject,  see  the  admirable  work  by  Charles  Sumner, 
entitled  "  White  Slavery  in  the  Barbary  States." 

52 


610  JAY'S  \YORK  ». 

Boston,  would  your  colleague,  the  Honorable  Mr.  Brooks,  have 
accused  him  of  slave  stealing  ?  Is  it  not  possible,  sir,  that,  with 
very  many  of  our  casuists  and  moralists,  questions  of  conscience 
are  decided  according  to  the  tincture  of  a  skin  ? 

I  will  now  ask  your  attention  to  some  of  the  political  conse 
quences  resulting  from  the  late  measures  in  which  you  rejoice, 
and  for  which  you  voted.  ^No  sooner  had  Congress  made  the 
required  concessions  to  the  slave  power,  than  the  advocates  of 
those  measures  claimed  the  glory  of  having  given  peace  to  the 
country,  and  perpetuity  to  the  Union.  Mr.  Webster,  as  one  of 
the  chief  agents  in  this  blessed  consummation,  received  the  con 
gratulations  of  a  crowd  in  Washington.  In  his  reply  he  ob 
served  : 

"  Truly,  gentlemen,  the  last  two  days  have  been  great  days.  A 
work  has  been  accomplished  which  dissipates  doubts  and  alarms,  puts 
an  end  to  angry  controversies,  fortifies  the  Constitution  of  the  country, 
and  strengthens  the  bond  of  the  Union. 

"  '  Now  is  the  winter  of  our  discontent 

Made  glorious  summer  ; 

And  all  the  clouds  that  lowered  upon  our  house 
In  the  deep  bosom  of  the  ocean  buried.'  " 

The  glorious  summer  anticipated  by  the  orator  proved  cold 
and  brief,  and  if  the  lowering  clouds  were  indeed  buried  in  the 
ocean,  the  sea  has  given  up  its  dead.  Never  before,  since  the 
organization  of  the  government,  has  such  a  tempest  of  indigna 
tion  swept  over  the  land.  Never  before,  in  a  single  instance, 
has  there  been  manifested  throughout  the  religious  portion  of 
the  community,  of  all  creeds  and  names,  such  a  settled  determi 
nation  in  the  fear  of  God  to  withhold  obedience  to  a  law  of  the 
land.  The  sentiments  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  the 
free  States,  exclusive  of  the  commercial  cities,  are  briefly  but 
emphatically  embodied  in  a  resolution  of  the  Common  Council 
of  Chicago,  viz. : 

"  The  Fugitive  Slave  Act  recently  passed  by  Congress  is  revolting 
to  our  moral  sense,  and  an  outrage  on  our  feelings  of  justice  and 
humanity,  because  it  disregards  all  the  securities  which  the  Constitu 
tion  and  laws  have  thrown  around  personal  liberty,  and  its  direct  ten 
dency  is  to  alienate  the  people  from  their  love  and  reverence  for  the 
government  and  institutions  of  our  country." 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL   A.    ELIOT.  611 

How  far  the  clouds  which  hovered  over  our  house  have  been 
dissipated,  let  the  recent  rout  of  Mr.  Webster's  party  in  Massa 
chusetts  testify.  Let  his  own  declaration,  a  month  after  the 
peace  measures  were  adopted,  that  the  Union  was  passing 
through  a  fiery  trial,  testify.*  How  far  the  work  of  the  two 
days  has  fortified  the  Constitution,  let  the  recent  law  of  Ver 
mont,  denounced  as  an  utter  nullification  of  the  Constitution, 
because  it  rescues  the  alleged  fugitive  from  the  hands  of  the 
commissioner,  and  gives  him  a  jury  trial  before  a  State  court, 
testify.  When  rumors  were  rife  that  Mr.  Webster  intended  to 
repudiate  his  own  thunder,  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  the  New  York 
Herald,  the  chief  northern  organ  of  the  slave-holders,  promised 
that,  if  the  senator  would  indeed  pursue  a  course  so  patriotic,  a 
grateful  country  would,  at  the  next  election,  place  him  in  the 
presidential  chair.  But  scarcely  had  the  acts  advocated  by  Mr. 
Webster  been  consummated,  than  the  Herald,  with  sardonic 
malice,  announces, — 

"  The  predictions  of  Mr.  Clay,  that  the  Compromise  Bill  would 
speedily  conciliate  all  parties,  and  restore  the  era  of  good  feeling,  were 
exactly  the  reverse  of  the  actual  consequences.  Mr.  Webster  has  been 
cast  overboard  in  Massachusetts.  General  Cass  has  been  virtually  con 
demned  in  Michigan.  Mr.  Dickinson,  the  President,  and  his  cabinet, 
have  been  routed  in  New  York.  Mr.  Phelps  has  been  superseded  in 
Vermont.  Whilst  in  Ohio,  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Wisconsin,  the  Free 
Soilers  have  carried  off  the  booty."  And  lie  winds  up  with  declaring, 
that  the  next  President  "  can't  be  Fillmore  nor  Webster." 

If  the  "  peace  measures  "  have  strengthened  the  bond  of  the 
Union,  what  mean  all  the  meetings  lately  held  to  save  the 
Union  ?  Why  is  the  tocsin  now  sounded  by  the  very  authors 
and  friends  of  the  measures  ?  How  comes  it  that,  in  Boston 
itself,  the  chairman  of  a  Union  meeting  contradicts  the  exulting 
and  jubilant  shout  of  triumph  uttered  by  the  Secretary  of  State, 
and  makes  the  following  doleful  announcement  ? 

"  The  Union,  and  consequently  the  existence  of  this  nation,  is  men 
aced,  and  unless  there  is  a  great  and  general  effort  in  their  support, 
we  may  soon  behold  the  mighty  fabric  of  our  government  trembling 
over  our  heads,  and  threatening  by  its  fall  to  crush  the  prosperity  which 
we  have  so  long  and  happily  enjoyed." 

*  Letter  to  Union  Meeting  in  New  York,  28th  Oct.,  1850. 


612  JAY'S  WORKS. 

So  relaxed  lias  become  the  bond  of  our  Union,  that  one  hun 
dred  gentlemen  of  property  and  standing  in  New  York  have, 
under  the  style  and  title  of  "  The  New  York  Union  Committee 
of  Safety,"  assumed  the  onerous  task  of  taking  it  into  their 
safe  keeping.  "  Committees  of  safety  "  are  associated  with  times 
of  peril  and  anarchy,  and  are  never  wanted  when  alarms  have 
ceased,  angry  discussions  ended,  the  Constitution  fortified,  and 
the  bond  of  Union  strengthened. 

In  this  universal  panic,  in  this  dread  entertained,  especially 
in  Boston,  by  Mr.  Webster's  friends,  of  soon  seeing  the  mighty 
fabric  of  our  government  trembling  over  their  heads,  it  may,  sir, 
be  consolatory  to  you  and  others  to  know  how  so  dire  a  calamity 
may  be  averted.  The  chivalric  senator  from  Mississippi  —  the 
gentleman  who  threatens  to  hang  one  senator  if  he  dare  place 
his  foot  on  the  soil  of  Mississippi,  who  draws  a  loaded  pistol  on 
another,  and  for  a  third  bears  a  challenge  to  mortal  combat  — 
was  lately  in  the  city  of  New  York.  The  Committee  of  Safety 
found  him  out,  and  lauded  him  for  his  fearless  discharge  of  duty, 
and  his  fervor  and  devotion  to  the  Union,  and  welcomed  him  to 
the  commercial  emporium  in  the  name  of  all  who  appreciate  the 
blessings  we  enjoy,  and  are  willing  to  transmit  them  to  their 
children.  The  worthy  and  conciliatory  gentleman  very  appro 
priately  communicated  to  the  committee  having  the  Union  in 
charge  the  conditions  on  which  alone  it  could  be  saved,  notwith 
standing  its  bond  had  so  recently  been  strengthened.  These 
conditions  are,  we  learn,  four  in  number. 

1.  "  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  passed  by  Congress  shall  remain 
the  law  of  the  land,  and  be  faithfully  executed." 

Both  you  and  Mr.  Webster  admit  that  the  Constitution  per 
mits  a  jury  trial  to  the  fugitive.  Should  Congress,  in  its  wisdom, 
and  in  obedience  to  the  wishes  of  the  great  mass  of  the  northern 
population,  and  in  the  exercise  of  its  constitutional  power,  elevate 
property  in  a  human  being  to  the  same  level  with  that  in  a 
horse,  and  permit  a  jury  to  pass  upon  the  title  to  it,  —  the  Union 
must  be  dissolved. 

2.  "  The  Wilmot  Proviso,  that  monstrous  thing,  shall  not  be 
revived."     It  was  not  courteous,  certainly,  in  Mr.  Foote  thus  to 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL   A.    ELIOT.  613 

characterize  Mr.  Webster's  thunder.  The  claim  to  this  thunder 
was  made  in  his  speech,  September,  1847,  at  the  Springfield 
Convention,  which  nominated  him  for  President ;  and  the  Con 
vention,  in  his  presence,  thus  declared  their  devotion  to  his 
missile  : 

"  The  Whigs  of  Massachusetts  now  declare,  and  put  this  declaration 
of  their  purpose  on  record,  that  Massachusetts  will  never  consent  that 
Mexican  territories,  however  acquired,  shall  become  a  part  of  the 
American  Union,  unless  on  the  unalterable  condition  that  there  shall 
be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude,  otherwise  than  in  punish 
ment  for  crime." 

The  next  year  Mr.  Webster  launched  his  thunder  over  the 
Territory  of  Oregon,  and  thus  in  his  speech  (10th  August, 
1848)  vindicated  it  from  the  character  now  given  to  it  by  Mr. 
Foote : 

"  Gentlemen  from  the  South  declare  that  we  invade  their  rights  when 
we  deprive  them  of  a  participation  in  the  enjoyment  of  territories  ac 
quired  by  the  common  services  and  common  exertions  of  all.  Is  this 
true  ?  Of  what  do  we  deprive  them  ?  Why,  they  say  that  we  deprive 
them  of  the  privilege  of  carrying  their  slaves  as  slaves  into  the  new 
territories.  Well,  sir,  what  is  the  amount  of  that?  They  say,  that  in 
this  way  we  deprive  them  of  going  into  this  acquired  territory  with 
their  property.  Their  property !  What  do  they  mean  by  this  '  pro 
perty  'i '  We  certainly  do  not  deprive  them  of  the  privilege  of  going 
into  those  newly  acquired  territories  with  all  that,  in  the  general  esti 
mate  of  human  society  and  common  and  universal  understanding  of 
mankind,  is  esteemed  property.  Not  at  all.  The  truth  is  just  this. 
They  have  in  their*o\vn  States  peculiar  laws  which  create  property  in 

persons The  real  meaning,  then,  of  southern  gentlemen,  in 

making  this  complaint,  is,  that  they  cannot  go  into  the  territories  of  the 
United  States  carrying  with  them  their  own  peculiar  law,  a  law 
which  creates  property  in  persons." 

So  the  Wilmot  Proviso  was  no  monstrous  thing  at  all,  as 
applied  to  Oregon.  When  the  question  came  up  of  applying 
this  same  Proviso  to  New  Mexico  and  California,  Mr.  Webster 
discovered  in  these  Territories  a  certain  peculiarity  of  physical 
geography  and  Asiatic  scenery  which  he  had  not  discovered  in 
Oregon,  and  which,  he  found,  rendered  it  a  physical  impossibility 
for  southern  gentlemen  to  carry  there  "  a  law  which  creates 
property  in  persons,"  and  he  therefore  gave  them  full  liberty  to 
carry  their  law  into  those  vast  regions,  if  they  could.  But  at 
52* 


614  JAY'S  WORKS. 

the  very  moment  of  giving  this  liberty  to  southern  gentlemen,  he 
courageously  warned  them  that  his  thunder  was  good  constitu 
tional  thunder,  and  would  be  used  whenever  necessary. 

"  Wherever  there  is  an  inch  of  land  to  be  stayed  back  from  becoming 
slave  territory,  I  am  ready  to  insert  the  principle  of  the  exclusion  of 
slavery.  I  am  pledged  to  that  from  1837,  —  pledged  to  it  again  and 
again,  and  I  will  perform  those  pledges." 

So,  should  we  get  another  slice  of  Mexico,  or  annex  Cuba  or 
St.  Domingo,  Mr.  Webster  would  revive  the  Wilmot  Proviso, 
and  then  he  will  be  the  means,  if  he  succeeds,  of  dissolving  the 
Union ! 

3.  The  next  condition  announced  to  the  Safety  Committee 
is,  —  "  No  attempt  shall  be  made  in  Congress  to  prohibit  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia." 

Now  it  is  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Webster,  that  Congress  has  the 
constitutional  right,  not  merely  to  attempt,  but  actually  to  effect, 
the  exclusion  of  slavery  in  all  the  Territories  of  the  United 
States.  The  District  of  Columbia  being  placed  by  the  Consti 
tution  expressly  under  "  the  exclusive  jurisdiction "  of  Con 
gress,  the  constitutional  right  to  abolish  slavery  there  has  rarely 
been  questioned ;  but  it  has  been  contended  that  good  faith  to 
the  States  which  ceded  the  District  forbids  such  an  act  of  con 
stitutional  power.  Hence,  in  1838,  a  resolution  was  introduced 
into  the  Senate  declaring  that  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  would  be  "a  violation  of  good  faith,"  &c.  What  said 
Mr.  Webster? 

"I  do  not  know  any  matter  of  fact,  or  any  ground  of  argument,  on 
which  this  affirmation  of  plighted  faith  can  stand.  I  see  nothing  in  the 
act  of  cession,  and  nothing  in  the  Constitution,  and  nothing  in  the 
transaction,  implying  any  limitation  on  the  authority  of  Congress."  * 

*  On  the  10th  of  January,  1838,  Mr.  Clay  moved  in  the  Senate  the  following 
resolution,  viz. : —  "  Resolved,  that  the  interference  by  the  citizens  of  any  of 
the  States,  -with  a  view  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  this  District,  is  endan 
gering  the  rights  and  security  of  the  people  of  this  District ;  and  that  any 
act  or  measure  of  Congress  designed  to  abolish  slavery  in  this  District  would 
be  a  violation  of  the  faith  implied  in  the  cession  by  the  States  of  Virginia 
and  Maryland,  a  just  cause  of  alarm  to  the  people  of  the  slave-holding  States, 
and  have  a  direct  and  inevitable  tendency  to  disturb  and  endanger  the 
Union."  Passed,  38  to  8,  Mr.  Webster  voting  in  the  negative.  Senate  Jour 
nal,  2  Sess.  25  Cong.,  p.  127. 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL   A.    ELIOT.  615 

4.  The  last  condition  on  which  the  Union  can  be  preserved 
is,  —  "  No  State  shall  be  prevented  from  coming  into  the  Union 
on  the  ground  of  having  slavery."  This  is  an  unkind  cut  at 
Mr.  Webster,  since  he  has  again  and  again  pledged  himself 
against  the  admission  of  slave  States.  Even  so  early  as  1819, 
he  advocated,  in  a  public  meeting  at  Boston,  a  resolution  declar 
ing  that  Congress 

"  Possessed  the  constitutional  power,  upon  the  admission  of  any  new 
State  created  beyond  the  limits  of  the  original  territory  of  the  United 
States,  to  make  the  prohibition  of  the  further  extension  of  slavery  or 
involuntary  servitude  in  such  new  State  a  condition  of  admission. 
That,  in  the  opinion  of  this  meeting,  it  is  just  and  expedient  that  this 
power  should  be  exercised  by  Congress  upon  the  admission  of  ail  new 
States  created  beyond  the  original  limits  of  the  United  States." 

In  his  New  York  speech,  in  1837,  he  averred, 

"  When  it  is  proposed  to  bring  new  members  into  the  political  part 
nership,  the  old  members  have  a  right  to  say  on  what  terms  such  new 
partners  are  to  come  in,  and  what  they  are  to  bring  along  with  them." 

In  his  Springfield  speech,  he  insisted, 

"  There  is  no  one  (he  forgot  Mr.  Foote  and  his  other  southern 
friends)  who  can  complain  of  the  North  for  resisting  the  increase  of 
slave  representation,  because  it  gives  power  to  the  minority  in  a  manner 
inconsistent  with  the  principles  of  our  government." 

So  late  as  1848,  he  proclaimed  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate, 

"  I  shall  oppose  all  such  extension  (slave  representation)  at  all  times 
and  under  all  circumstances,  even  against  all  inducements,  against  all 
combinations,  against  all  compromises." 

The  State  of  Georgia,  in  her  convention  of  December  last, 
added  a  fifth  condition  to  those  stated  by  Mr.  Foote  as  indispen 
sable  to  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  viz. :  —  "  No  act  sup 
pressing  the  slave-trade  between  the  slave-holding  States." 
Unfortunately  for  Mr.  Webster,  he  is  here,  for  the  fifth  time, 
virtually  held  up  as  a  disorganizer,  and  an  enemy  of  the  Union ; 
for  in  his  speech  in  the  Senate  (February  6, 1837)  he  remarked : 

"  As  to  the  point,  the  right  of  regulating  the  transfer  of  slaves  from 
one  State  to  another,  he  did  not  know  that  he  entertained  any  doubt, 
because  the  Constitution  gave  Congress  the  right  to  regulate  trade  and 


616  JAY'S  WORKS. 

commerce  between  the  States.  Trade  in  what  ?  In  whatever  was 
the  Subject  of  commerce  and  ownership.  If  slaves  were  the  subjects 
of  ownership,  then  trade  in  them  between  the  States  was  subject  to  the 
regulation  of  Congress." 

Mr.  Webster  declared,  that  the  work  of  the  two  days  in 
which  he  rejoiced  had  fortified  the  Constitution,  and  strengthened 
the  bond  of  the  Union ;  and  yet  we  are  now  solemnly  warned, 
by  the  very  men  and  party  with  whom  he  is  acting,  that  the 
bond  is  to  be  severed,  should  Congress  pass  any  one  of  five  laws, 
all  and  each  of  which  he,  the  great  expounder,  declares  the 
Constitution  authorizes  Congress  to  pass.  So  it  seems  the 
great  peril  to  which  we  are  exposed,  the  course  which  is  to 
make  the  fabric  of  our  government  to  tremble  over  the  heads  of 
the  people  of  Boston,  is,  not  the  violation  of  the  Constitution, 
nor  the  breach  of  its  compromises,  nor  the  invasion  of  the  rights 
of  the  South,  but  the  exercise  by  Congress  of  powers  which  Mr. 
Webster  declares  to  be  undoubtedly  constitutional.  The  aboli 
tionists  supposed  they  were  following  a  safe  guide  when  they 
confined  themselves,  in  their  petitions  to  Congress  for  legislative 
action  against  slavery,  exclusively  to  such  measures  as  they 
were  assured,  by  the  eminent  expounder,  were  strictly  constitu 
tional.  The  abolitionists  have  sympathized  with  this  gentleman 
in  the  obloquy  he  incurred,  in  common  with  themselves,  for 
holding  opinions  unpalatable  to  the  slave-holders,  and  for  main 
taining  the  constitutional  rights  of  Congress.  Because  he 
insisted,  in  the  Senate,  on  the  power  of  Congress  over  slavery 
and  the  slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  Mr.  Rives,  of 
Virginia^  was  so  unkind  as  to  say,  that  the  gentleman  from  Mas 
sachusetts,  "  if  it  so  pleased  his  fancy,  might  disport  himself  in 
tossing  squibs  and  firebrands  about  this  hall ;  but  those  who  are 
sitting  upon  a  barrel  of  gunpowder,  liable  to  be  blown  up  by 
his  dangerous  missiles,  could  hardly  be  expected  to  be  quite 
as  calm  and  philosophic."  Because  he  presented  anti-slavery 
petitions,  and  insisted  on  the  duty  of  Congress  to  consider  them, 
Mr.  King,  of  Alabama,  affirmed  that  the  course  which  the 
senator  from  Massachusetts  had  taken  had  "  placed  him  at  the 
head  of  those  men  who  are  inundating  Congress  with  their 
petitions."  Strange  as  it  may  now  seem,  Mr.  Cuthbert,  of 


LETTER   TO   SAMUEL   A.   ELIOT.  617 

Georgia,  told  Mr.  Webster  to  his  face  in  the  Senate,  "  The  gen 
tleman  had  uniformly  been  opposed  to  all  those  measures  which 
tended  to  quiet  the  country  and  heal  those  sectional  dissensions 
which  distract  the  Union."  *  Surely,  when  the  abolitionists 
have  so  long  made  Mr.  Webster  their  polar  star  in  all  constitu 
tional  questions,  and  have  incurred  with  him  the  accusation  of 
tossing  squibs  and  firebrands,  and  of  opposing  measures  which 
tended  to  quiet  the  country  and  settle  sectional  dissensions,  they 
had  a  right  to  expect  from  his  friends  a  larger  share  of  compas 
sion  and  forbearance  than  they  have  experienced. 

It  would  seem,  sir,  that,  in  the  late  treaty  of  peace  between 
the  North  and  the  South,  it  has  been  agreed  and  understood, 
that  every  power  granted  by  the  Constitution  whereby  slavery 
can  be  protected,  extended,  and  perpetuated,  is  to  be  actively 
enforced ;  and  that  every  power  which  might  be  used  for  cur 
tailing  human  bondage,  however  unquestionable  may  be  its 
grant,  shall  forever  remain  dormant,  under  the  penalty  of  an 
immediate  dissolution  of  the  Union.  This,  sir,  is  the  treaty 
which  our  commercial  cities  are  glorifying ;  this  is  the  treaty 
which  has  turned  our  "  winter  of  discontent  "  into  "  glorious 
summer."  And  think  you,  sir,  that  the  slave-holders,  having 
eyes,  see  not,  and  having  understandings,  perceive  not,  the 
haberdashery  patriotism  which  rejoices  in  such  a  treaty,  and 
denounces  as  "  fanatics,"  "  vipers,"  and  "  woolly-headed  philan 
thropists,"  all  who  do  not  confess  it  to  be  a  glorious  consumma 
tion  ?  The  southern  papers  tell  us  that  our  Union  meetings 
are  got  up  to  "  sell  a  little  more  tape  and  flannel,"  and  they 
remark,  "  It  is  very  queer  that  Union  meetings  are  held  only  in 
places  which  trade  with  the  South."  Out  of  regard  to  their 
southern  brethren,  a  member  of  the  British  House  of  Commons 
was  insulted  in  Faneuil  Hall  by  a  portion  of  the  Boston  people, 
and  forthwith  the  New  Orleans  Delta,  instead  of  gratefully  ac 
knowledging  the  compliment,  remarks,  that  their  "  good  Union- 
loving  friends  in  Boston  are  now  solacing  the  South,  with  sugar 
plums  in  the  shape  of  resolutions  and  speeches,  and  spice  in  the 
form  of  a  row,  got  up  on  the  occasion  of  the  first  appearance  of 

*  Speech,  June  8,  1836. 


618  JAY'S  WORKS. 

George  Thompson,  an  imported  incendiary  and  hireling  agitator. 
Such  manifestation  possesses  an  advantage  which  doubtless  con 
stitutes  no  small  recommendation  with  our  good  brethren  of 
Boston,  —  it  is  very  cheap.  The  cottoncratical  clerks  and 
warehousemen  may  raise  a  hubbub  in  Faneuil  Hall,  but  the 
fanatics  can  slay  them  at  the  polk" 

It  is  some  consolation  to  those  who  are  now  suffering  all  the 
contempt  and  opprobrium  which  can  be  thrown  both  upon  their 
heads  and  their  hearts,  because  they  have  refused  to  follow  Mr. 
Webster  in  the  devious  paths  in  which  it  has  lately  been  his 
pleasure  to  walk,  that  they  have  by  their  constancy  and  firmness 
extorted  from  their  southern  antagonists  a  tribute  which  is  not 
paid  to  their  revilers.  Said  Mr.  Stanley,  of  Virginia,  in  his 
speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives  last  March,  speaking  of 
a  certain  class  of  northern  politicians,  —  "I  would  say,  with  a 
slight  alteration  of  one  of  Canning's  verses,  — 

" '  Give  me  the  avowed,  erect,  and  manly  foe, 
Open  I  can  meet,  perhaps  may  turn,  his  blow ; 
But  of  all  the  plagues,  great  Heaven,  thy  wrath  can  send, 
Save,  0  save  me  from  a  dough-face  friend !'" 

In  closing  this  long  letter,  permit  me  to  advert  to  the  opinion 
expressed  abroad  of  your  Fugitive  Law.  Mr.  "Webster  thought 
it  convenient  to  quote  the  sentiment  of  a  nameless  correspondent, 
as  to  the  mischievous  mixture  of  religion  with  politics.  Pos 
sibly  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Lushington,  one  of  the  Lords  of  the 
Privy  Council,  Judge  of  the  Vice- Admiralty  Court,  and  the  ne- 
gotiator^  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain,  of  a  recent  treaty  with 
France,  may  be  entitled  to  at  least  equal  weight.  This  gentle 
man,  in  a  private  letter  to  an  English  friend,  and  not  intended 
for  publication,  thus  speaks  of  your  law : 

"  No  one  can  feel  more  sincerely  than  myself,  abhorrence  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  —  a  measure  as  cruel  and  unchristian  as  ever 
disgraced  any  country." 

An  Irish  liberal,  writing  from  Dublin,  says  : 

"  I  long  looked  to  your  country  as  the  ark  of  the  world's  liberties. 
I  confess  I  hope  for  this  no  longer.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  is  a 


LETTER   TO    SAMUEL   A.    ELIOT.  619 

shocking  sample  of  the  depravity  of  public  sentiment  in  the  United 
States.  So  atrocious  a  measure  could  not  have  passed  into  a  law,  if 
the  majority  of  the  people  had  not  actively  assented,  or  passively  con 
sented.  Here,  by  the  preponderating  influence  of  our  aristocracy,  a 
small,  but  compact  body,  measures  are  often  carried  into  laws  that  are 
very  distasteful  to  multitudes  ;  but  such  a  mean,  vile  law  as  the  Fugi 
tive  Slave  Bill  could  not  pass  in  England." 

The  English  press,  Whig,  Tory,  and  Eadical,  is  indignant  at 
the  atrocities  of  your  law.  The  taunt  of  our  slave-holders,  that 
the  English  had  better  reform  abuses  at  home,  is  thus  met  by  a 
radical  journal,  The  People: 

"  The  Americans  laugh  at  us  when  we  speak  of  American  slavery, 
so  long  as  so  many  of  our  fellow-subjects  in  England  and  Ireland  are 
perishing  from  starvation  through  monarchial  and  aristocratical  tyranny. 
We  answer,  that  the  Americans  know  that  the  men  and  women  who 
lift  up  their  voices  against  American  slavery  are  the  enemies  of  British 
tyranny  and  oppression." 

Your  law,  sir,  degrades  the  national  character  abroad ;  its  ex 
cessive  servility  to  southern  dictation  excites  the  contempt  of 
the  slave-holders  for  the  easy,  selfish  virtue  of  their  northern 
auxiliaries,  while  its  outrages  upon  religion,  justice,  humanity, 
and  the  dearest  principles  of  personal  freedom,  under  pretence 
of  preserving  the  Union,  weaken  the  attachment  of  conscientious 
men  for  a  confederacy  which  requires  such  horrible  sacrifices  for 
its  continuance.  All  these  evils  might  have  been  easily  avoided 
by  a  law  satisfying  every  requirement  of  the  Constitution,  and 
yet  treating  the  alleged  fugitive  as  a  MAN,  and  granting  him  the 
same  protection  as  is  accorded  to  an  alleged  murderer.  God 
gave  you,  sir,  an  opportunity  for  which  you  ought  to  have  been 
grateful,  of  illustrating  your  Puritan  descent  by  standing  forth 
before  the  nation  as  an  advocate  of  justice  and  freedom,  and  of 
the  rights  of  the  poor  and  oppressed.  Through  a  blind  devotion 
to  a  political  leader,  you  rejected  the  palm  which  Providence 
tendered  to  your  acceptance,  and  have  indelibly  associated  your 
name  with  cruelty  and  injustice.  Had  you  retired  from  the  no 
tice  of  the  public,  as  you  did  from  the  suffrages  of  the  electors, 
you  had  acted  wisely.  In  an  evil  hour  for  yourself,  you  stood 
forth  as  the  champion  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  Its  enemies 


620  JAY'S  WORKS. 

rejoice  in  your  rashness,  for  your  feeble  apology  has  rendered 
its  deformities  more  prominent,  and,  by  failing  to  vindicate,  you 
have  virtually  confessed  its  abominations.  May  you  live,  sir,  to 
deplore  the  grievous  error  you  have  committed,  and,  by  your 
future  efforts  in  behalf  of  human  freedom  and  happiness,  atone 
for  the  wound  they  have  received  at  your  hand. 

FEBRUARY,  1851 


AN   ADDRESS 

TO    THE    ANTI-SLAVERY    CHRISTIANS    OF    THE    UNITED 
STATES.    SIGNED  BY  A  NUMBER  OF  CLERGY 
MEN    AND    OTHERS. 


JUNE,    1852. 


FRIENDS  AND  BRETHREN  :  —  We  address  you  in  behalf  of 
the  American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society.  Approving 
of  the  principles  avowed  and  the  measures  pursued  by  that 
association,  we  beg  leave  to  submit  to  you  the  considerations 
which  peculiarly  entitle  it  at  the  present  juncture  to  the  active 
sympathy  and  effectual  aid  of  the  friends  of  the  anti-slavery 
cause. 

While  the  advocates  of  constitutional  government  in  Europe 
are  lamenting  a  wide-spread  reaction  in  behalf  of  despotic 
authority,  the  friends  of  the  inalienable  rights  of  man  behold 
with  grief  and  mortification  a  similar  reaction  in  our  own  Re 
public,  in  behalf  of  a  despotism  more  inexorable,  and  more 
hostile  to  human  progress  and  happiness,  than  any  which  afflicts 
the  eastern  continent.  In  both  instances,  the  reaction  is  more 
apparent  than  real.  Opinions  in  favor  of  human  liberty  remain 
the  same,  but  the  expression  of  them  has,  to  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  been  stifled  by  a  sudden,  mighty,  and  combined  effort  of 
capitalists  and  politicians,  aided  to  a  great  extent  by  ecclesias 
tical  influence,  and  in  each  case  accompanied  with  violated 
pledges  and  revolting  perfidy. 
53 


622  JAY'S  WORKS. 

In  our  own  community,  the  cause  of  Christian  morals  has 
been  deeply  wounded,  and  a  new  impulse  given  to  infidelity,  by 
the  various  modes  adopted  by  merchants,  politicians,  and  divines 
to  conciliate  the  slave-holding  interest.  Doctrines  have  been 
advanced  on  high  authority  respecting  the  supremacy  of  human 
laws,  which,  if  true,  convict  the  "  noble  army  of  martyrs,"  in 
cluding  the  blessed  apostles  themselves,  of  being  but  felons  and 
traitors.  Public  men,  and  even  public  meetings,  have  professed 
in  unqualified  terms  their  ignorance  of  a  higher  law  than  the 
Federal  Constitution.  Rich  men  among  us  have  given  of  their 
abundance  to  reduce  to  slavery  the  fugitive  from  bondage ;  and 
lawyers,  heretofore  regarded  as  reputable,  have  not  shrunk  from 
taking  reward  against  the  innocent,  and  prostituting  a  noble 
profession  to  the  service  of  the  slave-catcher.  The  sympathy 
heretofore  felt  for  the  victim  of  oppression  who  had  escaped 
from  his  prison-house,  and  the  repugnance  manifested  to  aid  in 
his  arrest,  have  been  denounced  as  "prejudices  to  be  conquered  ; " 
and  lips  which  once  uttered  noble  words  in  behalf  of  human 
rights,  have  been  busily  employed  in  proclaiming  to  republicans 
the  duty  and  the  glory  of  catching  slaves.  Nay,  some  professed 
ambassadors  of  the  merciful  Jesus  have  announced  from  their 
pulpits  that  HE  has  sanctioned  the  conversion  into  articles  of 
merchandise  of  beings  charged  with  no  crime,  made  a  little 
lower  than  the  angels,  and  redeemed  by  his  own  blood  !  A  law 
has  been  passed  for  the  recovery  of  fugitive  slaves,  which,  for 
its  cool  violation  of  all  the  received  and  acknowledged  principles 
of  judicial  justice,  for  its  outrages  on  humanity,  and  for  its  arbi 
trary  requirement  of  every  citizen  to  assist  in  a  slave-hunt  when 
commanded  by  an  official  menial,  is  unexampled  in  the  legislation 
of  any  Christian  country.  Yet  an  active  agency  in  the  execu 
tion  of  this  most  detestable  law  has  been  made,  even  by  professed 
ministers  of  the  gospel,  a  test  of  Christian  obedience. 

The  success  which  has  thus  far  attended  the  combined  effort 
to  which  we  have  referred,  has  been  in  a  great  measure  owing 
to  the  fancied  security  of  the  North  and  the  simulated  violence 
of  the  South. 

The  war  against  Mexico  was  waged  for  the  acquisition  of 


ADDRESS     TO    ANTI-SLAVERY    CHRISTIANS.  G23 

slave  territory,  and  great  was  the  fear  felt  by  the  North  that 
human  bondage  would  be  extended  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific. 
No  less  than  fourteen  States  protested,  through  their  Legisla 
tures,  against  any  enlargement  of  the  area  of  slavery.  The 
voice  of  Daniel  "Webster  was  raised  to  warn  his  countrymen  of 
the  impending  calamity,  and  to  approve  and  enforce  the  great 
principles  announced  by  the  Free  Soil  Convention  at  Buffalo. 
The  innate  love  of  liberty  was  awakened  throughout  the  North, 
and  its  representatives  in  Congress  bowed  to  the  will  of  their 
constituents ;  and  all  the  devices  of  the  slave-holders  to  procure 
territorial  governments  for  the  conquered  territories,  allowing 
the  slavery  of  a  portion  of  the  inhabitants,  were  defeated.  Soon, 
the  Wilmot  proviso,  applied,  with  the  assistance  of  Daniel 
Webster,  to  Oregon,  secured  that  important  territory  to  freedom. 
This  was  followed  by  the  joyful  intelligence  that  New  Mexico 
and  California  had  both  adopted  State  Constitutions  prohibiting 
slavery.  A  shout  of  victory  ascended  from  the  North,  and  the 
greatness  of  the  triumph  was  supposed  to  be  -attested  by  the 
wailings  of  desperation  uttered  by  the  slave-holders.  It  was  at 
this  moment  of  fancied  security  that  the  capitalists  and  politicians 
contrived  a  panic  about  the  Union,  and  traders  in  southern  votes 
and  merchandise  devised  the  patriotic  work  of  saving  the  Union, 
by  surrendering  the  territories  of  New  Mexico  and  Utah  to  the 
slave-holders,  and  making  slave-hunting  a  national  sport,  under 
regulations  of  extraordinary  cruelty.  The  work  was  hastened 
on  by  the  most  astounding  treachery,  supported  by  the  audacious 
assumption  that  the  law  of  physical  geography  and  Asiatic 
scenery  rendered  it  physically  impossible  that  any  portion  of  the 
vast  region  conquered  from  Mexico  could  ever  be  trodden  by 
slaves. 

A  dissolution  of  the  Union  could  have  no  other  effect  on  the 
slave-holding  interest  than  to  break  down  those  bulwarks  which 
the  Federal  Government,  from  its  beginning,  has  been  busy  in 
raising  around  it,  and  to  rouse  all  beyond  the  slave  territory  into 
active  hostility.  But  although  the  Union  was  in  little  danger, 
the  work  of  saving  it  was  no  less  profitable  than  patriotic,  as  it 
tended  to  prevent  the  political  and  commercial  non-intercourse 


624  JAY'S  WORKS. 

threatened  by  the  South ;  and  the  proceedings  of  Union-saving 
committees  were  found  a  convenient  mode  of  advertising  for  the 
trade  and  the  votes  of  the  slave-holders.  In  this  manner  an 
influence  was  exerted  which,  aided  by  the  supposed  security  of 
the  North,  led  to  the  so-called  Compromise,  in  which  the  fruits 
of  the  recent  victory  were  all  thrown  away,  with  the  single 
exception  of  the  anti-slavery  Constitution  of  California.  Some 
thing  was  indeed  gained  to  the  character  of  the  national  capital, 
by  prohibiting  the  importation  of  slaves  for  sale,  but  nothing  to 
the  cause  of  humanity,  since  the  traffic  was  only  transferred  from 
Washington  to  Alexandria.  In  return  for  the  California  Con 
stitution,  which  Congress  could  not  have  prevented  and  did  not 
dare  to  annul,  we  have  had  the  prodigious  enlargement  of  the 
slave  State  of  Texas,  the  abandonment  of  New  Mexico  and 
Utah  to  slavery,  and  the  enactment  of  the  fugitive  bill,  as  drafted 
by  the  slave-holders  themselves,  forced  through  the  House  of 
Representatives  without  discussion,  and  so  intensely  odious  and 
wicked,  that  not  even  personal  interest  nor  party  discipline  could 
induce  one  half  of  the  members  of  the  Lower  House  to  incur 
the  infamy  of  giving  it  their  votes. 

The  political  parties,  having  thus  conciliated  the  slave-holders, 
entered  upon  a  new  race  between  themselves  for  power  and 
office,  and  mutually  agreed  to  prevent,  as  far  as  possible,  all 
interference  in  the  race  by  the  avowed  friends  of  human  rights. 
The  anti-slavery  agitation  was  to  be  suppressed  at  all  hazards ; 
and  every  man  who  expressed  sympathy  for  the  oppressed,  or 
indignation  against  slave-hunts,  was  to  be  driven  from  either 
party.  By  virtue  of  this  compact,  similar  in  its  spirit  to  that 
which  in  Europe  is  smothering  every  aspiration  for  freedom,  all 
who  protest  against  the  oppression  of  millions  of  native-born 
Americans,  are  to  be  deemed  disturbers  of  the  public  peace, 
while  the  powers  of  slave-holders,  like  those  of  kings,  are  to  be 
regarded  as  held  by  the  grace  of  God,  and  too  sacred  to  be 
discussed  or  questioned. 

It  is  under  these  circumstances,  painful,  mortifying,  and  unex 
pected,  that  we  address  ourselves  to  the  anti-slavery  Christians 
of  the  United  States.  The  whole  question  of  the  duty  of  oppo- 


ADDRESS     TO    ANTI-SLAVERY    CHRISTIANS.  625 

sition  to  slavery  rests  on  the  sinfulness  of  reducing  innocent 
men  and  women,  and  their  children  after  them,  to  articles  of 
merchandise.  If  human  beings  may  be  held  as  chattels,  they 
are,  of  course,  legitimate  subjects  of  traffic,  and  the  African,  no 
less  than  the  American  slave-trade,  is  a  commendable  and  a 
Christian  commerce.  The  lawfulness  of  slavery  in  no  degree 
depends  on  the  complexion  of  its  victims,  since  the  slavery 
alleged  to  be  recognized  in  the  Scriptures  was  unquestionably 
that  of  Asiatics  and  Europeans.  None  of  our  clerical  champions 
of  the  institution  ever  venture  to  dwell  on  its  accordance  with 
the  attributes  of  the  Deity,  or  the  precepts  of  the  gospel.  On 
what  ground,  then,  is  the  moral  vindication  of  American  slavery 
rested  ?  On  the  alleged  fact  that  God  permitted  the  Jews  to 
hold  certain  heathen  as  slaves,  and  that,  consequently,  it  cannot 
be  morally  wrong  in  Americans  to  hold  their  own  countrymen, 
and  even  their  fellow- Christians,  and  often  their  own  children, 
brothers  and  sisters,  as  slaves.  Without  admitting  the  premises, 
we  utterly  deny  the  conclusion  drawn  from  them.  The  Creator 
and  Judge  of  all  men,  infinite  in  wisdom,  goodness,  justice,  and 
power,  selects  his  own  modes  of  maintaining  his  moral  govern 
ment,  and  of  inflicting  deserved  punishment ;  and  none  may  say 
unto  him,  "  What  doest  thou  ?  "  To  him  belongeth  vengeance, 
and  none  may  execute  it  in  his  name,  except  by  his  appoint 
ment.  He  saw  fit  to  destroy  by  water  a  guilty  world ;  but  will 
it  be  inferred  from  this  act  of  divine  sovereignty  that  saints  have 
a  moral  right  to  drown  sinners  ?  For  their  extreme  wickedness, 
the  seven  nations  of  Palestine  were  doomed  to  extermination, 
and  the  Jews  were  ordered  to  take  possession  of  their  land,  and 
to  put  all  the  inhabitants,  men,  women,  and  children,  to  the 
sword ;  to  make  no  covenant  with  them,  nor  show  mercy  unto 
them.  Does  this  commission  to  the  Jews  confer  upon  us  similar 
rights  in  other  lands  ?  The  nations  adjoining  Palestine  were 
idolatrous  and  otherwise  excessively  depraved;  and  we  are 
assured  by  pro-slavery  divines  that  God,  by  an  express  revelation, 
gave  the  Jews  the  privilege  of  buying  and  holding  their  inhab 
itants  as  slaves  ;  and  hence  we  are  taught  that,  without  any 
similar  revelation  to  ourselves,  we  are  authorized  to  keep  our 
53* 


626  JAY'S  WORKS. 

own  brethren  in  bonds,  and  to  reduce  them  to  the  condition  of 
beasts  of  burden,  in  defiance  of  the  express  commands  of  God 
to  do  justice  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  do  to  others  as  we  would 
they  should  do  unto  us.  We  utterly  deny  the  authorized  ex 
istence  of  hereditary  chattel  slavery  in  the  Jewish  common 
wealth,  such  slavery  being  absolutely  forbidden  by  the  universal 
emancipation  proclaimed  on  each  returning  Jubilee.  But  so  far 
as  relates  to  the  lawfulness  of  American  slavery,  it  is  wholly 
immaterial  whether  the  Jews  held  slaves  or  not,  since  it  is  ad 
mitted  by  all  that  if  they  did,  they  acted  by  virtue  of  a  special 
and  express  permission  from  God,  while  it  is  equally  admitted 
that  no  such  permission  has  been  given  to  us.  If  American 
slavery  be  sanctioned  by  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  then, 
indeed,  is  that  religion  an  inextricable  riddle,  both  tolerating  and 
forbidding  every  species  of  cruelty,  injustice,  and  oppression. 

Friends  and  brethren,  we  believe  before  God  that  American 
slavery  is  hateful  in  his  sight,  and  utterly  irreconcilable  with  the 
holy  and  merciful  precepts  of  the  gospel  of  his  Son.  Hence, 
we  believe  it  morally  wrong  to  render  any  voluntary  aid  in 
upholding  an  iniquitous  system,  or  in  reducing  a  fellow-man  to 
bondage.  * 

We  are  continually  told  that  the  Federal  Government  has 
nothing  to  do  with  slavery,  and  yet  from  a  very  early  period  its 
powers  have  been  exerted  to  protect,  to  extend,  and  to  perpetuate 
the  institution.  It  is  the  object  of  the  American  and  Foreign 
Anti-Slavery  Society  to  effect,  as  far  as  possible,  an  entire 
divorce  of  the  Federal  Government  from  the  subject  of  slavery. 
In  relation  to  the  constitutional  powers  of  the  Federal  Govern 
ment,  we  indulge  in  no  opinions  more  ultra  than  such  as  have 
been  avowed  by  Daniel  Webster  himself.  With  him  we  hold 
that  Congress  is  fully  authorized  to  abolish  and  to  forbid  slavery 
in  its  own  territories,  to  suppress  the  commerce  in  slaves  between 
the  States,  and  to  refuse  admission  into  the  Union  of  new  slave 
States.  We  also  cordially  concur  in  his  "judgment,"  expressed 
in  his  speech  in  the  Senate,  on  the  7th  of  March,  1850,  that  the 
Constitution  does  not  confer  on  Congress  the  right  to  legislate 
respecting  fugitive  slaves.  In  accordance  with  these  views,  the 


ADDRESS     TO    ANTI-SLAVERY    CHRISTIANS.  627 

American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society  aims  at  delivering 
the  General  Government  from  all  entangling  alliance  with 
slavery,  and  they  desire  to  effect  this  much  desired  deliverance 
by  inducing  the  people  to  select  for  their  representatives  in 
Congress  such  men  only  as  will  resolutely  refuse  to  legislate  in 
behalf  of  slavery. 

But  as  anti-slavery  Christians,  our  duties  in  regard  to  this 
horrible  and  sinful  system  extend  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  Federal  Government,  and  reach  even  to  the  slave-holders 
themselves.  True  Christianity  is  an  aggressive  religion.  "  Go 
ye  into  all  the  world,"  was  the  command  of  its  divine  founder. 
Can  it  be  our  duty  to  send  missionaries  into  China  and  Hindos- 
tan,  to  rebuke  the  sins  of  their  inhabitants,  and  to  prostrate  in 
the  dust  their  altars  and  their  gods,  and  yet  to  observe  the  silence 
of  the  grave  in  regard  to  a  sin  which,  in  our  own  country, 
reduces  millions  to  ignorance,  degradation,  and  wretchedness, 
and,  by  denying  them  the  lamp  of  life,  keeps  them  in  virtual 
heathenism  ?  Convinced  that  slavery  is  a  sin,  we  have  not  only 
the  right,  but  are  bound  by  the  obligations  of  Christianity,  to 
oppose  it,  and  to  use  all  lawful  means  for  its  abolition,  whether 
in  our  own  or  other  countries.  If  slavery  be  not  sinful,  then  we 
know  not  what  degree  of  cruelty  and  injustice  amounts  to  a 
violation  of  the  law  of  God. 

A  combination  of  circumstances  has  led  many  of  our  clergy 
at  the  North,  and  nearly  all  at  the  South,  to  regard  slavery,  with 
all  its  inseparable  abominations,  an  exception  from  the  Christian 
code.  We  must  love  all  men  as  ourselves,  with  the  exception 
of  such  as  are  black.  With  the  same  exception,  we  must  do 
good  unto  all  men,  and  exercise  justice  and  mercy  to  all.  We 
must  give  Bibles  to  men  of  all  lands  and  all  races,  except  to 
about  three  millions  of  blacks  in  our  midst.  The  laws  must 
protect  the  marriage  tie,  except  in  the  case  of  these  same  mil 
lions.  Supplications  must  be  made  for  all  men,  except  those 
among  us  who  are  of  all  men  the  most  miserable.  In  short,  as 
Christians,  we  must  rebuke  every  sin  except  that  giant  sin  of 
our  nation  which  involves  the  perpetration  of  almost  every  other. 
But  it  is  affirmed,  by  way  of  apology,  that  we  at  the  North  are 


628  JAY'S  WORKS. 

free  from  this  sin,  and  have  therefore  no  concern  with  it.  Were 
the  assertion  true,  the  apology  would  be  equally  valid  for  not 
attempting  to  overthrow  the  idolatry  of  the  Hindoos,  or  the 
delusions  of  the  false  prophet,  and  for  recalling  all  our  mission 
aries  to  the  heathen.  But  unfortunately  the  assertion  is  utterly 
destitute  of  truth.  Probably  not  a  sermon  is  preached  in  our 
large  city  churches  which  is  not  listened  to  by  slave-holders ; 
probably  not  a  congregation  is  assembled  in  the  free  States 
which  does  not  include  persons  directly  or  indirectly  interested 
in  slavery.  How  many  of  our  sons  are  constantly  removing  to 
the  South,  and  becoming  slave-holders  !  What  numbers  of  our 
daughters  are  mistresses  on  slave  plantations  !  How  many 
northern  clergymen  now  descant  from  southern  pulpits  on  the 
divine  rights  of  slave-holders!  And  shall  we  be  told  that 
northern  Christians  have  no  cause  to  raise  their  voices  against 
a  sin  which  is  daily  corrupting  their  sons,  their  daughters,  their 
politicians,  and  their  clergy  ?  Alas  !  there  is  a  mighty  conspi 
racy,  prompted  by  selfish  considerations,  to  suppress  all  discussion 
of  this  sin,  all  exhibition  of  its  withering  influence  on  human 
virtue  and  happiness.  We  have  great  national  societies  for 
disseminating  Christian  truth ;  but  no  reader  of  their  tracts  and 
Sunday  school  books  learns  from  their  pages  that  it  is  sinful  to 
rob  black  men  of  all  their  rights  ;  to  compel  them  to  labor  with 
out  wages  ;  to  deny  them  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  and  to  send 
fathers,  mothers,  and  children  to  market,  like  cattle  and  bales  of 
cotton.  All  other  sins  are  in  these  publications  faithfully  and 
freely  rebuked ;  but  every  allusion  tb  this  great  and  all-pervading 
sin  of  our  nation  is  carefully  excluded.  Occasionally,  a  tract  or 
religious  biography  from  the  other  side  of  the  water  is  deemed 
worthy  of  republication ;  but  it  is  first  submitted  to  a  process 
significantly  termed  "  cottonizing,"  and  which  consists  in  care 
fully  expunging  every  expression  condemnatory  of  human  bond 
age.  The  American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society,  utterly 
repudiating  such  a  time-serving  view  of  Christian  duty,  aims  at 
convincing  the  hearts  and  understandings  of  all,  both  at  the 
North  and  at  the  South,  of  the  sinfulness  of  American  slavery. 
It  must,  however,  be  understood,  that  this  Society  directs  its 


ADDRESS     TO    ANTI-SLAVERY    CHRISTIANS.  629 

labors  to  the  abolition  of  CASTE  as  well  as  of  slavery.  We 
have  among  ourselves  a  population,  each  individual  of  which  is 
a  swift  witness  of  our  cruelty  and  unchristian  conduct.  While 
protesting  against  the  injustice  and  oppression  practised  by  our 
southern  brethren,  let  us  not  forget  the  deep  guilt  of  our  north 
ern  community  in  their  treatment  of  the  free  people  of  color. 
No  casuisty  can  reconcile  the  scorn  and  contumely  poured  upon 
these  people  with  the  precepts  of  the  gospel  of  Christ ;  of  that 
gospel  which  makes  love  for  each  other  the  badge  of  the  Re 
deemer's  disciples.  It  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  on  the  privations 
and  disabilities  to  which  our  colored  citizens  are  subjected. 
When  the  professed  ministers  of  Christ  refuse  to  sit  in  the 
councils  of  the  church  with  their  reverend  brethren  not  colored 
like  themselves,  and  when  colored  candidates  for  the  ministry 
are  excluded  from  theological  seminaries  solely  on  account  of 
the  tincture  of  their  skin,  it  is  not  surprising  that  others  should 
be  as  regardless  of  the  temporal,  as  certain  of  the  clergy  are  of 
the  spiritual  welfare  of  men  to  whom  God  has  been  pleased  to 
give  a  dark  complexion.  When  the  pious  colored  youth  is 
denied  the  usual  facilities  for  qualifying  him  to  minister  to  the 
diseases  of  the  souls  of  his  people,  who  shall  rigidly  condemn 
the  professors  of  the  healing  art  for  denying  similar  facilities 
for  ministering  to  the  diseases  of  the  body,  by  excluding  colored 
students  from  their  lecture-rooms?  Surely,  the  ruffians  who 
insult  and  abuse  the  colored  man,  and  the  demagogues  who, 
availing  themselves  of  a  popular  prejudice,  deny  him  equality 
before  the  law,  have  high  examples  to  extenuate,  if  not  to  justify 
their  pride  and  cruelty.  In  striving  to  secure  to  our  colored 
people  the  rights  freely  accorded  to  all  others,  and  thus  giving 
them  the  means  of  maintaining  themselves  by  honest  industry, 
of  developing  and  improving  their  talents,  and  of  studying  the 
things  which  belong  to  their  peace,  the  Society  is  pursuing  an 
object  in  perfect  accordance  with  Christian  benevolence,  and 
one  that  must  commend  itself  to  every  unprejudiced  mind.  % 

In  our  opposition  to  slavery  and  caste,  we  desire  to  use  no 
instruments  of  unsanctified  temper ;  nor  have  we  any  wish  to 
conceal  those  we  do  use.  Believing  it  sinful  to  compel  an  inno- 


630  JAY'S  WORKS. 

cent  man  to  serve  as  a  slave,  we  must  refuse  to  be  partakers 
of  other  men's  sins ;  and  hence,  under  no  circumstances,  can  we 
aid  in  catching  or  securing  fugitive  slaves,  whatever  may  be  the 
penalties  of  our  disobedience  to  a  sinful  act  of  Congress.^  It  will 
be  the  endeavor  of  the  American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  So 
ciety  to  dissuade  all  from  joining  in  slave-hunts,  as  a  palpable 
violation  of  Christian  duty.  Setting  aside  the  moral  turpitude 
of  slavery,  the  fugitive  slave  act  comprises  a  mass  of  iniquity  in 
no  degree  required  by  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution.  The 
act  points  out  the  mode  of  seizing  and  surrendering,  not  slaves, 
but  persons  owing  service  or  labor •,  and  is  therefore  applicable  to 
white  apprentices,  and  to  persons  under  contract  to  labor  for  a 
limited  time.  Apprentices  have  already  been  surrendered  under 
it,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  others,  who  are  alleged  to  have 
hired  themselves  out  for  a  month  or  a  year,  may  not  be.  To 
illustrate  the  intense  injustice  of  this  act,  let  us  suppose  a  young 
man  to  leave  his  father's  home,  in  Boston  or  New  York,  for 
California.  After  the  lapse  of  a  year  or  two,  he  returns.  While 
pursuing  an  honest  calling,  he  is  arrested  in  the  street,  on  the 
charge  of  stealing  —  the  stereotype  charge  in  such  cases,  to  pre 
vent  resistance  —  and  hurried  before  a  commissioner.  An  affi 
davit  made  in  California,  and  there  certified  by  a  judge,  is  read, 
setting  forth  that  the  prisoner  is  the  apprentice  of  the  deponent. 
Immediately,  without  being  permitted  to  produce  any  testimony 
to  rebut  a  document  which  the  law  declares  SHALL  BE  CONCLU 
SIVE,  he  is  put  in  irons,  and  sent  on  board  a  vessel  departing  for 
the  Pacific,  without  being  permitted  to  take  leave  of  his  parents, 
wife,  or  children.  Do  we  revolt  at  the  mere  supposition  of  such 
barbarity  ?  But  does  the  barbarity  and  injustice  depend  on  the 
complexion  of  the  victim  ?  That  the  Constitution  requires  the 
perpetration  of  such  horrible  outrages  on  justice  and  humanity,  is 
denied  even  by  Daniel  Webster,  the  great  champion  of  the  law? 
since  he  proposed  giving  the  accused  the  benefit  of  a  trial  by  jury. 
We  should  be  faithless  to  the  cause  not  only  of  Christianity,  but  of 
civil  liberty,  did  we  not  oppose  an  enactment  so  detestably  atro 
cious  ;  one  which  establishes  a  title  to  property  in  an  intelligent, 
accountable,  immortal  being,  on  testimony  which  in  no  civilized 
country  would  support  the  claim  to  a  dog. 


ADDRESS     TO    ANTI-SLAVERY    CHRISTIANS.  631 

The  cruelty  and  heartlessness  attending  the  execution  of  this 
law,  the  extraordinary  zeal  which  our  rich  men  and  politicians 
manifest  in  its  behalf,  the  sanction  given  to  it  by  popular  divines, 
and  the  infidel  sneers  which  many  of  our  party  presses  have 
deemed  it  expedient  to  cast  on  the  advocates  of  a  "  higher  law  " 
than  an  act  of  Congress,  have  unitedly  exerted  a  most  disastrous 
influence  on  the  tone  of  public  morals.  One  of  the  most  strik 
ing  instances  of  this  influence  is  the  vile  attempt  made  in  Penn 
sylvania,  under  the  especial  countenance  of  the  Federal  Admin 
istration,  to  convert  resistance  to  the  execution  of  the  Fugitive 
Act  into  the  capital  crime  of  high  treason.  A  fugitive,  who  had 
been  arrested  at  Boston,  was  liberated  by  some  of  his  colored 
friends,  who,  finding  the  door  of  his  room  in  the  court-house 
open,  hustled  the  officer,  and  secured  the  escape  of  the  intended 
victim.  Not  a  weapon  had  been  provided,  not  a  wound  was 
given ;  yet  the  rescue  was  boldly  proclaimed  by  Mr.  Webster, 
Secretary  of  State,  to  be  an  act  of  treason,  a  levying  of  war 
against  the  United  States  ! 

On  the  llth  of  September,  1851,  a  more  serious  affair  occurred. 
An  armed  party,  headed  by  a  deputy-marshal,  attempted  to 
arrest  some  fugitive  slaves  in  Pennsylvania.  The  fugitives,  aided 
by  some  others,  stood  on  their  defence.  The  claimant,  a  Mary 
land  slave-holder,  was  shot  in  the  affray,  and  the  fugitives 
escaped.  Five  days  after,  the  Governor  of  Maryland  was 
officially  informed,  from  the  "  Department  of  State,"  that  "  the 
District  Attorney  was  especially  instructed  to  ascertain  whether 
the  facts  would  make  out  the  crime  of  TREASON  against  the 
United  States,  and,  if  so,  to  take  prompt  measures  to  secure  all 
concerned  for  trial  for  that  OFFENCE."  Faithfully  and  zealously 
were  the  orders  from  Washington  obeyed.  Incredible  as  it  may 
seem,  a  grand  jury  was  found  with  consciences  sufficiently  pliant 
to  present  no  less  than  seventy-eight  indictments  against  thirty- 
nine  persons,  alleged  to  have  been  concerned  in  the  riot.  All 
were  indicted  for  TREASON,  as  well  as  for  various  crimes  of  in 
ferior  grade. 

Let  it  be  recollected  that  the  Constitution,  to  prevent  tyran 
nical  prosecutions  for  constructive  treason,  declares  :  "  Treason 


632 

against  the  ,  United  States  shall  consist  ONLY  in  levying  war 
against  them,  or  in  adhering  to  their  enemies,  giving  them  aid 
and  comfort."  It  may  well  be  supposed  that  the  Government 
selected  for  the  commencement  of  the  prosecutions  the  strongest 
case  of  the  thirty-nine.  On  the  25th  of  November,  Castner 
Hanway,  a  white  man  of  irreproachable  character,  was  placed 
at  the  bar,  charged,  on  the  oaths  of  the  grand  jury,  that  on  the 
11  th  of  September,  1851,  "HE  DID  WICKEDLY  AND  TRAITOR 
OUSLY  LEVY  WAR  AGAINST  THE  UNITED  STATES."  The  Only 

offence  proved  against  him  was,  that  he  was  near  the  scene  of 
action,  unarmed,  and  on  horseback,  and  that,  when  ordered  by 
the  deputy-marshal  to  aid  him  in  capturing  the  fugitives,  like 
an  honest  man,  he  declined  rendering  the  required  assistance. 
The  presiding  judge  charged  the  jury  that  "  The  Court  feel 
bound  to  say,  that  they  do  not  think  the  transaction  with  which 
the  prisoner  is  charged  with  being  connected,  rises  to  the  dignity 
of  treason  or  of  levying  war ; "  and  a  verdict  of  not  guilty  was 
returned  without  hesitation.  This  verdict  led  the  Government 
to  abandon  all  the  indictments  for  treason,  among  which  was 
one  against  Samuel  Williams,  a  colored  man,  for  levying  war 
against  the  United  States,  by  giving  notice  to  the  fugitives  that 
a  warrant  had  been  issued  for  their  arrest!  But  still  an  effort 
was  made  to  punish  him  for  this  act  of  benevolence,  and  he  was 
tried  on  an  indictment  for  misdemeanor,  under  the  Fugitive  Act, 
for  obstructing  the  arrest  by  his  notice,  and  for  which,  if  con 
victed,  he  was  liable  to  a  fine  not  exceeding  one  thousand  dollars, 
and  imprisonment  not  exceeding  six  months.  The  trial  by  jury 
was  again  vindicated  by  a  verdict  of  acquital.  All  the  prosecu 
tions  were  then  abandoned  in  despair ;  and  if  the  gallows  and 
the  prisons  were  denied  their  intended  victims,  the  Government 
could  at  least  beseech  the  slave-holders  to  accept  the  will  for 
the  deed,  especially  as  it  is  said  no  less  than  seventy  thousand 
dollars  were  expended  on  these  prosecutions  from  the  public 
treasury. 

In  connection  with  the  Fugitive  Act,  we  ask  your  attention  to 
the  renewed  efforts  to  transport  the  free  people  of  color  to  Africa. 
We  freely  acknowledge  not  only  the  right  of  these  people  to 


ADDRESS     TO    ANTI-SLAVERY    CHRISTIANS.  633 

seek  a  more  favorable  home  than  this  country  affords,  but  also 
the  right  and  duty  of  others  to  afford  them,  according  to  circum 
stances,  the  aid  they  may  desire  for  this  purpose.  But  the 
American  Colonization  Society  proffers  them  undesired  aid,  and 
recommends  their  removal  to  Africa,  as  rendering  slavery  more 
secure  and  more  profitable,  and  relieving  the  country  of  a  popu 
lation  which  it  represents  as  a  "  nuisance."  To  induce  them  to 
accept  the  proffered  aid,  the  oppressions  they  here  suffer  are 
excused  and  often  justified,  while  attempts  to  render  their  con 
dition  here  more  tolerable,  by  promoting  their  intellectual  im 
provement  and  enlarging  the  field  of  their  industry,  are  discoun 
tenanced.  In  short,  the  whole  tendency  of  the  Society  is,  by 
rendering  their  condition  here  intolerable,  to  extort  their  consent 
to  go  to  Africa.  We  all  know  the  extreme  anxiety  of  the  slave 
holders  to  expel  the  free  blacks  from  within  their  borders.  Says 
a  late  South  Carolina  paper,*  recommending  the  State  "  to  ship 
her  free  negroes  to  another  land,"  "  The  very  condition  and  the 
circumstances  that  surround  the  free  negro  are  in  direct  hostility 
and  diametrically  opposed  to  the  institution  of  slavery."  Mr. 
Webster,  in  his  memorable  speech  of  7th  March,  1850,  adroitly 
recommended  himself  to  his  new  patrons  by  declaring  that 
EIGHTY  MILLIONS  had  been  received  from  the  sale  of  lands 
ceded  by  Virginia ;  and  that,  "  If  Virginia  and  the  South  see  fit 
to  adopt  any  proposition  to  RELIEVE  themselves  from  the  free 
people  of  color  among  them,  they  have  my  free  consent  that  the 
Government  shall  pay  them  any  sum  of  money  out  of  the  pro 
ceeds  which  may  be  adequate  for  the  purpose."  And  again : 
"If  any  gentleman  from  the  SOUTH  shall  propose  a  scheme  of 
colonization  to  be  carried  on  by  this  Government  upon  a  large 
scale,  for  the  transportation  of  her  colored  people  to  any  colony 
or  any  place  in  the  world,  I  should  be  quite  disposed  to  incur 
almost  any  degree  of  expense  to  accomplish  the  object."  Of 
course,  the  Secretary  of  State  is  willing  to  tax  the  whole  repub 
lic  to  any  amount  not  exceeding  eighty  millions,  not  to  benefit 
the  free  people  of  color,  not  to  civilize  and  Christianize  Africa, 
but  to  banish  to  any  part  of  the  world  hundreds  of  thousands  of 

*  Greenfield  Mountaineer. 
54 


634  JAY'S  WORKS. 

his  own  countrymen,  solely  and  avowedly  to  relieve  the  slave 
holders,  and  give  additional  security  and  permanence  to  the 
system  of  human  bondage  ;  and  this  gentleman  is  now  the  pub 
lic  champion  of  the  American  Colonization  Society.  Hence  a 
sense  of  Christian  duty  will  forbid  the  American  and  Foreign 
Anti-Slavery  Society  from  holding  any  relation  to  that  Society 
other  than  that  of  uncompromising  hostility. 

We  have  in  our  country  a  population,  free  and  bond,  of  be 
tween  three  and  four  millions,  who,  merely  on  account  of  their 
complexion,  are  treated  with  an  almost  total  disregard  of  that 
justice  and  humanity  enjoined  by  the  religion  we  profess.  The 
American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society  are  laboring  to 
secure  to  them  that  Christian  treatment  to  which  the  gospel  of 
Christ  entitles  them.  In  this  work  of  mercy,  they  invoke,  and 
have  a  right  to  invoke,  the  countenance  and  aid  of  the  Church. 
We  are  not  unconscious  that  the  Church  has,  in  past  ages,  been 
frequently  faithless  to  her  high  mission  of  cultivating  peace  and 
good-will  among  men ;  and  he  is  but  little  acquainted  with  pass 
ing  events  who  is  ignorant  that  the  American  Church  is  at  this 
moment  one  of  the  strongest  buttresses  of  American  caste  and 
slavery.  Would  we,  then,  if  we  could,  destroy  the  Church  ? 
God  forbid.  If  the  world  is  so  full  of  sin  and  wretchedness 
notwithstanding  the  Church,  what  would  it  be  without  a  Church  ? 
The  answer  may  be  found  in  the  cruelties  and  abominations  of 
paganism.  But  the  ministers  of  Christ  are  men  of  like  passions 
with  others,  and  liable,  like  others,  to  be  swayed  by  popular 
opinion  and  motives  of  self-interest.  It  is  possible  many  of  the 
clergy  have  not  reflected  that,  in  supporting  and  vindicating 
slavery,  they  are  lending  their  countenance  to  an  institution 
which  outrages  every  moral  precept  they  inculcate  from  the  pul 
pit.  What  answer  will  the  northern  clerical  slave-catcher,  or  the 
southern  reverend  slave-breeder  and  slave-trader  return  to  the 
inspired  question,  "He  that  loveth  not  his  brother  whom  he  hath 
seen,  how  can  he  love  God,  whom  he  hath  not  seen  ?  "  Surely 
it  is  worthy  of  remembrance  that,  at  the  day  of  final  account, 
the  Judge  will  consider  as  done  to  himself  both  the  kindness  and 
the  cruelty  shown  to  the  least  of  his  brethren. 


ADDRESS     TO    ANTI-SLAVERY    CHRISTIANS.  635 

We  are  constantly  reminded  that  the  Church  is  the  great 
instrument  of  moral  reform.  Most  gratefully  do  we  allow  that 
the  precepts  of  the  gospel  are  sufficient  for  all  the  moral  necessi 
ties  of  man.  "  Do  to  others  as  you  would  they  should  do  unto 
you,  is  a  law  which  if  obeyed,  would  of  itself  banish  slavery  and 
oppression  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  But  unhappily  the 
Church,  or  at  least  a  portion  of  her  ministers,  have  not  always 
applied  the  precepts  of  the  gospel  to  existing  and  popular  sins. 
It  is  certainly  no  exaggerated  statement,  that  not  one  sermon  in 
a  thousand  delivered  at  the  North  contains  the  slightest  allusion 
to  the  duties  of  Christians  towards  the  colored  population  ;  while 
at  the  South  multitudes  of  the  clergy  are  as  deeply  involved  in 
the  iniquities  of  slavery  as  their  hearers.  It  is  no  libel  on  the 
great  body  of  our  northern  clergy  to  say  that,  in  regard  to  the 
wrongs  of  the  colored  people,  instead  of  performing  the  part  of 
the  good  Samaritan,  their  highest  merit  consists  in  following  the 
example  of  the  priest  and  Levite,  and  passing  by  on  the  other 
side,  without  inflicting  new  injuries  on  their  wounded  brother. 
But  we  rejoice  to  know  that  there  are  ministers  of  Christ  among 
us,  and  not  a  few,  to  whom  these  remarks  are  wholly  inapplica 
ble  ;  men  who  pray  and  preach  and  labor  against  slavery  and 
caste,  and  thus  adorn  the  doctrine  of  God  their  Saviour.  We 
rejoice  also  to  know  that  such  ministers  are  appreciated  and 
honored  by  Christians  abroad  of  every  name.  The  clergy  of 
England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland  decline  admitting  into  their 
pulpits  clergymen  from  this  country  holding  what  they  deem 
heretical  doctrines  ;  but  can  they  exclude  any  for  a  fouler  heresy 
than  that  which  abrogates  all  the  Christian  precepts  of  justice 
and  mercy  in  their  application  to  colored  men  ?  We  trust  our 
friends  in  Great  Britain  will  not  weaken  our  hands,  and 
strengthen  the  pro-slavery  influence  of  our  churches,  by  over 
looking,  in  their  reception  of  American  clergymen,  the  course 
they  have  pursued  at  home  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  They 
may  be  perfectly  assured  that  the  American  clergyman,  who, 
abroad,  is  too  dignified  to  be  questioned  as  to  his  opinions  on 
human  bondage,  is  at  home  too  patriotic  to  offer  any  vigorous 
opposition  to  the  "  peculiar  institution  "  of  his  country. 


636  JAY'S  WORKS. 

We  have  thus  frankly  stated  the  objects  of  the  American  and 
Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society,  and  confidently  ask  if  they  are 
not  objects  worthy  to  be  pursued  by  rational,  accountable  Chris 
tian  men  ?  Nay,  we  go  farther,  and  ask,  has  not  a  Society  pur 
suing  such  objects  valid  claims  on  the  countenance  and  generous 
aid  of  every  philanthropist  and  every  Christian  in  our  country  ? 

Hostility  to  slavery  has  frequently  been  associated  with 
various  objects  of  political  and  moral  reform.  It  is  natural  it 
should  be  so,  since  the  same  love  for  our  neighbor  which  revolts 
at  his  oppression  seeks  to  advance  his  general  welfare.  But 
experience  has  fully  proved  that  associated  action  cannot  be 
efficiently  maintained  in  behalf  of  various  plans,  respecting 
which  the  individuals  associated  entertain  diverse  opinions. 
Hence  the  American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society,  with 
out  passing  any  judgment  on  other  proposed  reforms,  confine 
their  efforts  in  their  associated  capacity  to  the  abolition  of  caste 
and  slavery,  leaving  to  their  members  individually  the  full  and 
entire  liberty  of  advocating  and  promoting,  in  such  way  as  they 
may  think  proper,  any  other  reforms,  moral  or  political.  We 
believe  every  man  is  bound  to  exercise  the  elective  franchise  in 
the  fear  of  God ;  but  while  we  shall  ever  rejoice  in  the  election 
of  virtuous  rulers  who  will  do  justice  and  love  mercy,  it  is  not 
the  province  of  the  Society  to  recommend  particular  individuals 
for  the  suffrages  of  their  fellow-citizens. 

It  is  consoling  to  us  to  know  that,  in  the  sentiments  we  have 
expressed,  we  enjoy  the  sympathy  of  almost  all  without  the 
limits  of  our  own  country  who  bear  the  Christian  name.  A 
vast  multitude  on  our  own  soil  hold  the  same  sentiments,  and, 
did  they  act  with  one  heart  and  one  voice,  would  soon  triumph 
over  the  prejudice  which  supports  caste,  would  array  the 
Church  on  the  side  of  mercy,  and  rescue  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  from  its  unholy  and  unconstitutional  alliance  with  slavery. 
But  unfortunately,  the  sympathies  of  this  multitude,  not  being 
concentrated  in  action  and  counsel,  are  in  no  small  degree 
powerless  for  good.  The  anti-slavery  host  has  been  divided, 
and  of  course  enfeebled,  by  conflicting  opinions  on  topics  not 
immediately  affecting  the  colored  man.  For  the  sake  of  the 


ADDRESS     TO   ANTI-SLAVERY    CHRISTIANS.  637 

slave,  for  the  prosperity  of  the  country,  for  the  good  of  the 
Church  herself,  we  earnestly  desire  the  union  of  all  abolitionists, 
and  their  harmonious  action  in  behalf  of  their  colored  brethren. 
We  ask  all  who  approve  the  opinions  we  have  expressed  to 
give  vitality  and  energy  to  those  opinions,  by  aiding  the  Ameri 
can  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  disseminating  and 
enforcing  them.  J 

Public  opinion  is  in  this  country  the  controller  of  legislation. 
Hence,  at  one  period  a  traffic  in  African  savages  was  encour 
aged  by  law,  as  an  enlightened  and  legitimate  commerce.  At  a 
later  period,  all  but  two  States  were  desirous  to  abandon  it, 
and,  as  a  compromise,  Congress  was  restricted  from  abolishing 
it  until  after  twenty  years.  At  a  still  later  period,  a  commerce 
which  had  been  guaranteed  by  the  Federal  Constitution  was,  by 
an  act  of  Congress,  denounced  as  PIRACY.  Public  opinion  now, 
acting  through  the  legislature,  holds  him  a  felon  who  brings  to 
our  shores  for  sale  a  native  African,  while  we  have  just  seen  a 
citizen  tried  for  his  life  because  he  declined  to  assist  a  slave- 
catcher  in  reducing  to  slavery  a  native  American.  To  buy  and 
sell  Africans  is  wicked,  base,  and  detestable ;  to  buy  and  sell 
colored  Americans  is  in  perfect  accordance  with  the  most  ex 
alted  position  in  both  State  and  Church.  In  the  city  of  New 
York,  we  have  seen  "  men  of  great  stakes,"  merchant  princes, 
and  others,  lavishing  courtesies  on  the  most  reckless  and  violent 
champions  of  slavery  when  they  honored  them  with  their 
presence ;  and  we  have  seen  these  same  gentlemen  giving  aid 
and  comfort  to  the  slave-catcher,  without  losing  their  place  in 

flite  society. 
Most  certainly  public  opinion  on  these  subjects  is  unsound, 
and  ought  to  be  reformed.  Very  many  of  our  clergy,  and  their 
hearers,  need  to  be  reminded  that  the  commands  of  God  have 
no  reference  to  the  color  of  a  man's  skin,  but  that  all  are  equally 
entitled  to  receive,  and  are  equally  bound  to  render,  the  justice 
and  benevolence  enjoined  by  HIM  who  is  the  common  Father  of 
us  all.  Christians  generally  are  to  be  warned  not  to  be  par 
takers  of  other  men's  sins  towards  the  colored  race.  The 

54* 


638  JAY'S  WORKS. 

cruelty  of  State  and  Federal  legislation  is  to  be  exposed ;  the 
influence  of  the  colonization  scheme  in  exasperating  the 
prejudice  against  our  colored  brethren  is  to  be  demonstrated, 
and  the  public  is  to  be  fully  instructed  in  the  moral,  social,  and 
political  evils  resulting  from  slavery  and  caste,  tf 

But  how  are  these  great  ends  to  be  accomplished  ?  Individu 
al  effort  can  do  but  little.  In  the  present  age,  the  press  is  the 
great  lever  by  which  the  world  is  moved,  but  it  can  be 
employed  to  a  great  extent  only  through  the  united  pecuniary 
contributions  of  many.  The  influence  of  a  private  abolitionist 
can  rarely  reach  beyond  a  contracted  neighborhood ;  but  as  a 
member  of  the  American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society, 
and  a  donor  to  its  funds,  he  may  address  thousands.  The 
National  Era  was  established  at  Washington  with  funds 
supplied  by  the  Society,  and  since  repaid  ;  and  it  now  weekly 
addresses  anti-slavery  truth  to  seventeen  thousand  subscribers. 
The  Society  greatly  needs  a  periodical  of  its  own,  but  its  present 
funds  are  insufficient  for  the  establishment  of  one.  Treatises 
on  various  branches  of  this  great  subject  are  constantly  offered 
to  the  Society,  but  it  lacks  the  means  of  giving  them  to  the 
public  through  the  press.  Intelligent,  well-informed  lecturers 
are  wanted  to  awaken  public  attention,  to  collect  popular  assem 
blies,  and  to  enlist  the  sympathies  of  those  whose  avocations 
deny  them  the  opportunity  of  reading  anti-slavery  publications. 
Agents  are  desired  to  aid  in  the  formation  of  auxiliary  societies. 
Editors  and  authors  are  to  be  enlisted  in  the  cause ;  and  fre 
quently  information  and  statistics,  to  be  collected  at  much 
expense  of  time  and  labor,  are  needed  for  the  use  of  members  of 
Congress  and  other  public  men.  The  instrumentalities  for  in 
fluencing  public  opinion  and  correcting  prejudices  and  erroneous 
statements  are  manifold,  but  they  can  be  wielded  only  by  asso 
ciated  funds  and  labors. 

A  crisis  has  arrived  in  which  the  friends  of  the  anti-slavery 
cause  should  reorganize  and  act  together.  Unless  they  do  this, 
their  efforts  to  circumscribe  the  area  of  slavery,  to  break  the 
fetters  of  the  slave,  and  to  rescue  the  free  colored  man  from  his 


ADDRESS     TO    ANTI-SLAVERY    CHRISTIANS.  639 

present  degradation,  will  be  fruitless.  Should  the  present 
mighty  combination  of  capitalists,  merchants,  and  politicians, 
aided  by  a  number  of  popular  divines  enlisted  in  their  service, 
succeed  in  suppressing  all  manifestation  of  sympathy  for  the 
slave,  all  discussion  of  the  abominations  of  slavery,  all  compas 
sion  for  the  fugitive,  the  North  will  undoubtedly  be  prepared  to 
sanction  the  designs  now  entertained  for  the  erection  of  New 
Mexico,  Utah,  and  Southern  California  into  slave  States,  to 
gether  with  the  annexation  of  Cuba,  Hayti,  and  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  all  to  be  added  to  the  domain  of  the  slave-holder.  Let 
us  never  forget  that  duties  are  ours,  although  events  are  not, 
and  that  whatever  may  be  the  form  in  which  it  may  please 
Divine  Providence  to  punish  our  guilty  land,  he  requires  us  not 
only  to  love  mercy,  but  to  do  justice ;  a  command  we  fail  to 
obey,  so  long  as  we  refuse  to  use  lawful  means  to  secure  mercy 
and  justice  to  others.  Very  many  have  no  other  opportunity  of 
obeying  this  command,  in  regard  to  the  colored  race,  than  by 
their  pecuniary  contributions  to  the  anti-slavery  cause.  The 
efforts  of  the  American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society  are 
now  enfeebled  by  the  exhausted  state  of  their  treasury. 

Friends  and  brethren,  we  appeal  to  you  in  behalf  of  the 
Society.  In  the  language  of  Scripture,  we  exhort  you  to  show 
your  faith  by  your  works.  So  fully  aware  are  our  enemies  of 
the  importance  of  influencing  public  opinion  by  the  press,  that  a 
paper  has  been  established  at  the  capital  of  our  Republic  for 
the  single  and  avowed  purpose  of  vindicating  and  upholding 
human  bondage.  A  large  portion  of  the  newspaper  press  in  our 
commercial  cities  is  enlisted  in  the  same  unholy  cause.  Public 
rumor  tells  us,  that  a  committee  in  the  eity  of  New  York,  com 
prising  many  of  its  wealthiest  citizens,  raised  a  fund  of  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars ;  and  knowing  that  opposition  to 
slavery  has  its  strongest  fortress  in  the  religious  sentiment,  this 
committee  has  spread  broadcast  through  the  land  multitudes  of 
copies  of  pro-slavery  sermons.  While  the  votaries  of  Mammon 
and  the  aspirants  to  political  power  and  emolument  are  thus 
active  and  zealous  in  supporting  and  extending  a  horrible  and 


640  JAY'S  WORKS. 

degrading  despotism,  to  further  their  own  selfish  and  ambitious 
views,  will  not  the  friends  of  righteousness,  justice,  and  mercy, 
be  up  and  doing  ?  We  beseech  you  to  reply  by  enrolling  your 
names  among  the  members  of  the  American  and  Foreign  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  and  by  speedy  and  liberal  contributions  to  its 
treasury. 


LETTER 

TO  REV.  R.  S.  COOK,  CORRESPONDING  SECRETARY  OF 
THE  AMERICAN  TRACT  SOCIETY. 


NEW  YORK,  Monday,  Feb.  14,  1853. 

REVEREND  SIR  :  I  have  been  favored  with  your  letter  of 
the  last  month,  setting  forth  the  pecuniary  exigencies  of  the 
American  Tract  Society,  and  suggesting  to  my  "  charitable  con 
sideration  "  a  donation  to  its  funds.  Few  persons  hailed  with 
more  satisfaction  than  myself  the  establishment  of  your  Society,  or 
more  cordially  approved  the  truly  catholic  principles  on  which  it 
was  founded.  I  long  since  became  one  of  its  '  Life  Directors,' 
and  have  frequently  contributed  to  its  funds.  The  professed 
object  of  the  Society  was  to  inculcate  Christian  faith  and  prac 
tice,  and  to  a  very  great  extent  it  has  been  faithful  to  its  profes 
sion,  and  I  doubt  not  that  it  has  been  largely  instrumental  in 
promoting  the  spiritual  welfare  of  multitudes. 

But  the  good  effected  by  human  agency  is  seldom  without 
alloy,  and  for  some  years,  painful  doubts  have  intruded  them 
selves  on  my  mind  as  to  the  propriety  of  the  course  pursued  by 
the  Society  in  regard  to  a  most  momentous  subject.  Against 
these  doubts  I  have  long  struggled,  and  at  times  with  success. 
But  they  have  again  and  again  returned  with  increased  force, 


642  JAY'S  WORKS. 

and  they  have  been  so  entirely  confirmed  by  some  recent  devel 
opments,  that  I  am  constrained  to  return  a  most  reluctant  denial 
to  the  application  in  your  letter.  I  am  well  aware  of  the  deep 
responsibility  I  assume  in  placing  any  obstacle,  however  slight, 
in  the  way  of  the  Society.  Of  this  responsibility,  the  pain  I 
may  give  valued  friends,  and  the  obloquy  I  may  draw  upon  my 
self  from  a  very  minor  portion  —  I  feel  the  infinitely  greater 
weight  of  my  responsibility  to  my  Maker,  for  withholding  my 
aid  from  an  agency  that  has  effected  so  much  for  his  glory  and 
the  good  of  man.  This  responsibility  I  have  anxiously  pondered, 
and  have  come  to  the  conviction  that  I  may  not  avoid  it.  The 
facts  and  reasons  which  have  produced  this  conviction  I  will 
proceed  to  state.  Should  they  be  found  insufficient  to  justify  me, 
they  will  tend  to  save  others  from  the  error  into  which  I  have 
fallen ;  and  should  they,  on  the  other  hand,  be  found  valid,  they 
may  lead  to  salutary  results. 

The  classification  of  sins  into  those  of  commission  and  omis 
sion  is  trite.  AH  Scripture  testifies  that  mere  inaction  has  often 
incurred  the  divine  wrath.  The  Jewish  priests,  although  sedu 
lous  in  the  routine  of  ceremonial  duties,  were  denounced,  in  the 
indignant  language  of  inspiration,  as  "dumb  dogs,"  because 
t]hey  omitted  to  rebuke  popular  sins.  In  the  account  of  the  last 
judgment,  those  who  are  to  "go  away  into  everlasting  punish 
ment  "  are  not  condemned  as  heretics,  nor  as  the  perpetrators  of 
crime,  but  as  guilty  of  having  omitted  to  administer  to  the  neces 
sities  of  Christ's  afflicted  and  oppressed  brethren. 

You  have  by  this  time,  sir,  anticipated  that  my  charge  against 
the  Society  is  one  of  OMISSION.  There  is  a  giant,  and  in  its 
influence  an  all-pervading  sin,  in  our  land  —  a  sin  which  is  de 
stroying  the  peace  and  happiness  of  millions,  both  for  the  life 
that  is,  and  for  that  which  is  to  come  ;.  and  which  is  hardening 
the  hearts  and  paralyzing  the  consciences  of  many  more  by  its 
reflective  consequences.  Yet  the  American  Tract  Society  has 
publicly  and  officially  announced  through  you,  as  its  organ,  that 
it  does  not  intend  to  recognize  even  the  existence  of  this  sin ! 

About  a  year  since  the  ministers  and  delegates  of  the  Con- 


AMERICAN    TRACT    SOCIETY.  643 

gregational  Union  of  Fox  River,  Illinois,  addressed  a  very 
Christian  letter  to  the  Society.  In  this  letter  they  very  forcibly 
remark  : 

"  We  feel  sure  that  the  time  has  come  when  the  continued  absence 
from  the  publications  of  your  Society  of  all  that  relates  to  slavery,  will 
be  significant ;  that  silence  can  no  longer  be  neutrality  or  indifference  ; 
and  that  a  tract  literature  which  speaks  less  plainly  of  slavery  than  of 
other  specific  evils,  will  conduce  to  a  defective,  partial  and  unsound 
morality." 

In  your  official  reply  of  27th  February,  1852,  without  letting 
a  word  escape  your  pen,  acknowledging  the  sinfulness  of  Amer 
ican  slavery,  you  urge  various  reasons  for  not  breaking  the  silence 
so  long  observed  by  the  Society  respecting  human  bondage. 

"  It  would  seem  a  sacrifice  of  a  greater  to  a  lesser  good,  to  engage  in 
the  discussion  of  a  topic  already  exhausted,  with  the  likelihood  of  sat 
isfying  none,  and  with  the  certainty  of  alienating  multitudes  of  our  best 
friends,"  &c. 

Your  publications,  we  are  informed,  must  be  of  a  character 
"  calculated  to  meet  the  approbation  of  all  evangelical  Chris 
tians;"  and  you  seem  to  think  that,  amid  the  anti-slavery 
agitation,  it  is  desirable  "  that  at  least  one  institution  should 
move  forward  on  the  simple  errand  that  brought  the  Saviour 
into  the  world  —  proclaiming  Christ  and  him  crucified,"  &c. ; 
and  you  aver  "that  on  no  subject,  probably,  are  evangelical 
Christians  more  at  variance "  than  on  slavery ;  and  you  con 
clude  with  declaring  that  "  the  course  of  duty  seems  plain  before 
us  to  adhere  as  a  society  to  the  simple  gospel  in  its  essential 
saving  truths."  The  Union  were  not  convinced  by  your  argu 
ments  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  resolved  that  ere  long  no  catholic 
society  of  publication  can  well  refuse  to  express  anti-slavery 
truth  in  some  of  its  various  forms  of  moral  or  Biblical  argument, 
fact  or  sentiment ;  and  to  hasten  this  desired  consummation,  they 
ordered  the  correspondence  to  be  made  public. 

I  am  unable  to  reconcile  the  position  assumed  in  your  letter 
with  the  past  action  of  the  Society,  or  with  the  usually  received 
ideas  of  Christian  obligation.  It  seems  your  tracts  must  meet 


644  JAY'S  WORKS. 

the  approbation  of  all  evangelical  Christians.  If  we  ask  who 
these  are,  we  shall  be  told,  such  as  agree  in  maintaining  the 
Scriptural  authority  of  certain  abstract  doctrines.  But  we  all 
know,  that  these  same  Christians  differ  widely  on  various  ques 
tions  of  moral  practice.  You  are  not  ignorant  that  evangelical 
wine  and  rumsellers,  and  drinkers,  abound  both  in  town  and 
country ;  and  yet  your  Society  is  lavish  of  its  censures  on  them. 
It  condemns  the  theatre  and  race-course,  although  not  a  few  be 
lievers  in  the  evangelical  creed  frequent  both.  You  issue  pub 
lications  against  dancing,  and  yet  how  many  sons  and  daughters 
mingle  in  the  waltz,  in  the  presence  and  with  the  consent  of 
their  evangelical  parents.  You  condemn  travelling  on  the  Sab 
bath,  yet  our  Sunday  steamboats  and  rail-cars  are  not  without 
their  evangelical  passengers.  You  do  not  hesitate  to  rebuke 
gambling,  yet  evangelicals  may  be  found  at  the  card  and  the 
billiard-table.  As  far  as  I  can  judge,  the  publications  of  your 
Society  have  been  in  accordance  with  the  rule  you  announce  on 
few  subjects,  except  that  of  human  bondage  and  its  attendant 
atrocities.  I  know  not  that  in  the  twenty-seven  years  of  its  ex 
istence  the  Society  has  published  a  line  intended  to  touch  the 
conscience  of  an  American  slave-breeder  or  trader.  On  the 
contrary,  especial  care  has  been  taken  to  EXPUNGE  from  your 
reprints  every  expression  that  could  even  imply  a  censure  on 
our  stupendous  national  iniquity.  The  Society  has  no  hesitation 
in  condemning  cruelty,  oppression,  and  injustice,  but  it  shrinks 
with  affright  at  the  very  idea  of  acknowledging  that  it  is  cruel, 
oppressive  and  unjust  to  reduce  a  Hack  man  to  the  condition  of 
a  beast  of  burden,  to  deny  him  legal  marriage,  and  to  sell  him 
and  his  children  to  the  highest  bidder,  in  company  with  the 
beasts  of  the  field.  This  extreme  sensitiveness  is  shown  in  the 
alteration  of  a  passage  in  your  reprint  of  Gurney's  essay  on  the 
habitual  exercise  of  love  to  God.  Gurney  says  : 

"If  this  love  had  always  prevailed  among  professing  Christians, 
where  would  have  been  the  sword  of  the  crusader  ?  Where  the 
African  slave-trade  ?  Where  the  odious  system  which  permits  to  man 
a  property  in  his  fellow-men,  and  converts  rational  beings  into  market 
able  chattels  ?  "  Page  142. 


AMERICAN    TRACT    SOCIETY.  645 

This  was  meat  too  strong  for  the  digestion  of  the  Society,  and 
hence  it  was  carefully  diluted,  so  that  it  might  be  swallowed 
without  producing  the  slightest  nausea,  as  follows  : 

"  If  this  love  had  always  prevailed  among  professing  Christians, 
where  would  have  been  the  sword  of  the  crusader  ?  Where  the  tortures 
of  the  Inquisition  ?  Where  every  system  of  oppression  and  wrong  by 
which  he  who  has  the  power  revels  in  luxury  and  ease  at  the  expense 
of  his  fellow-men  ?  "  Page  199. 

It  was  an  ingenious  thought  to  turn  upon  the  Inquisition  Gur- 
ney's  application  of  his  subject  to  slave-traders  and  holders,  and 
to  lose  sight  of  property  in  man,  in  indefinite  generalities. 

Your  last  report,  in  announcing  the  reprint  of  the  memoir  of 
Mary  Lundie  Duncan,  tells  us : 

"  A  few  pages,  which  the  Committee  deemed  of  less  interest  to  the 
general  reader,  or  which  alluded  to  points  of  disagreement  among  evan 
gelical  Christians,  have  been  dropped." 

The  pages  dropped  are  indeed  few  and  unimportant,  and 
seemed  to  have  been  dropped  for  the  purpose  of  justifying  the 
word  "  abridged  "  on  the  title-page.  But  the  passages  dropped 
are  very  significant.  In  her  diary  for  March  22,  1833,  the  fol 
lowing  passage  is  expunged  in  the  Society's  edition,  while  every 
other  word  on  the  page  is  retained. 

"  We  have  been  lately  much  interested  in  the  emancipation  of  slaves. 
I  never  heard  eloquence  more  overpowering  than  that  of  George 
Thompson.  I  am  most  thankful  that  he  has  been  raised  up.  O  that 
the  measure  soon  to  be  proposed  in  Parliament  may  be  effectual." 

Poor  Mary !  The  American  Tract  Society  will  not  allow  you 
to  breathe  a  wish  for  West  India  emancipation  by  act  of  Par 
liament,  nor  to  admire  the  eloquence  of  an  anti-slavery  lecturer. 
The  biographer  of  this  lovely  and  highly  gifted  saint  remarks : 

"  When  George  Thompson,  the  eloquent  pleader  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  was  called  to  visit  the  United  States  in  the  hope  that  his  re 
markable  power  of  influencing  the  public  mind  might  be  beneficial  there, 
we  find  the  youthful  philanthropist,  whose  ardent  mind  glowed  with 
exalted  sympathies,  and  felt  an  interest  in  loftier  occupations  than 
usually  kindle  the  enthusiasm  of  girls  of  her  age,  embodying  her  de 
sires  for  his  success,  in  the  following  verses." 
55 


646  JAY'S  WORKS. 

This  paragraph  and  the  lines  they  introduced  are  both  EX 
PUNGED  from  your  edition.  A  Broadway  bookseller  had  already 
published  an  unmutilated  copy  of  the  book,  but  this  religious 
society,  more  sensitive  than  even  New  York  traffic  to  the  good 
will  of  the  slave-holders,  suppressed  not  merely  the  anti-slavery 
poetry,  but  the  testimony  of  a  mother  to  the  philanthropic  sen 
timents  of  her  departed  daughter !  But  the  work  of  expurgation 
did  not  stop  here.  In  Mary's  diary  is  the  following  entry : 

"August  1.  Freedom  has  dawned  this  morning  on  the  British  Col 
onies.  (No  more  degraded  lower  than  the  brutes — no  more  bowed  down 
with  suffering  from  which  there  is  no  redress)  the  sons  of  Africa  have 
obtained  the  rights  of  fellow-subjects — the  rights  of  man,  the  immortal 
creation  of  God.  (Noio  they  may  seek  the  sanctuary  fearless  of  the 
lash — they  may  call  their  children  their  own.)  Hope  will  animate  their 
hearts  and  give  vigor  to  their  efforts.  Oh,  for  more  holy  men  to  show 
them  the  way  of  salvation  !  The  Lord  keep  them  from  riot  and  idle 
ness.  They  have  been  so  little  taught  that  He  only  can  avert  confusion 
and  tumult  as  the  result  of  their  joy.  Some  Christians  there  are 
among  their  number,  who  wall  influence  others.  My  poor  fellow  trav 
ellers  through  life's  short  wilderness,  may  I  meet  with  many  of  you  in 
heaven,  where  even  I  can  hope  to  dwell  through  the  love  of  my  risen 
Lord !  There  none  will  despise  the  negro  whom  Jesus  Christ  hath 
pitied  and  redeemed." 

The  passages  in  italics  and  in  parentheses  are  expunged  in  the 
Society's  edition.  Mary  is  permitted  to  announce  that  the  ne 
groes  have  become  British  subjects,  to  express  her  apprehensions 
of  riot  and  idleness,  confusion  and  tumult,  as  consequences 
of  emancipation,  and  to  indulge  the  hope  of  meeting  negroes  in 
heaven,  where  they  will  not  be  despised.  But  she  is  not  per 
mitted  to  allude  to  the  cruelties  and  abominations  to  which  these 
same  negroes  had  been  subjected.  The  expunged  passages  in 
volve  no  doctrinal  "  points  of  disagreement  among  evangelical 
Christians."  Why  then  were  they  stricken  out  ?  Because  the 
same  cruelties  and  enormities  to  which  she  alluded,  are  perpe 
trated  at  home  by  evangelical  Christians  who  belong  to  and  sup 
port  the  American  Tract  Society. 

The  Society  will  not  venture  the  denial  of  the  truth  of  the 
expunged  assertions.  It  would  surely  not  aver  that  American 
slave  children  do  belong  to  their  parents.  It  would  be  put  to 
confusion  by  the  solemn  judicial  affirmance  of  the  validity  of  a 


AMERICAN   TRACT    SOCIETY.  647 

bequest  of  a  mother  to  one  person,  and  of  her  unborn  children 
to  another.  It  would  be  confuted  by  the  sale  of  children  at 
auction,  and  in  particular  of  a  sale  reported  within  the  few  last 
days,  of  a  child  three  years  old  bringing  three  hundred  dollars 
under  the  hammer,  while  a  southern  paper  adverts  with  pride 
to  the  price  of  human  flesh,  as  evidence  of  "  our  agricultural 
prosperity."  Your  Society,  sir,  expunged  Mary's  assertions, 
not  because  they  were  untrue,  but  because  they  are  now  as  true 
here  as  they  were  in  the  West  Indies,  and  it  is  the  policy  of  the 
Society  to  cover  up  and  conceal  whatever  reflects  odium  on  the 
"  peculiar  institution." 

Your  Committee  tell  us  in  their  last  Report  that  they  "  have 
never  lost  sight  of  their  responsibilities  to  those  of  tender 
years ; "  and  it  seems  they  issue  The  Child's  Paper,  of  which 
great  numbers  are  circulated.  Yet  the  responsibilities  to  chil 
dren  resting  on  the  Committee  permit  them  to  expunge  an 
expression  likely  to  remind  us  that  there  are  hundreds  of  thou 
sands  of  children  in  our  land  who  are  mere  articles  of  mer 
chandise.  These  very  responsibilities  are,  it  seems,  perfectly 
compatible  with  entire  silence  respecting  the  ignorance  and 
degradation  of  this  great  multitude  "  of  tender  years."  The 
Committee  know  that  in  some  of  our  States  even  a  free  mother, 
if  her  complexion  be  dark,  is,  by  law,  liable  to  be  scourged  on 
her  bare  back  should  she  be  taught  teaching  her  little  ones  to 
read  your  Child's  Paper,  yet  not  a  word  of  remonstrance 
escapes  the  American  Tract  Society !  In  the  very  last  number 
of  The  Child's  Paper  I  read  that 

"  There  are  between  10,000  and  12,000  children  in  the  City  of  New 
York  who  never  enter  a  church  or  school,  and  who  cannot  read  the 

Bible Here  are  heathen  at  home  ;  what  is  doing 

for  them  ? These  children  must  be  cared  for." 

Indeed  !  And  is  it  nothing  to  your  Society  that  there  are  in 
our  country  about  HALF  A  MILLION  of  little  black  heathen  who 
are  prevented  by  law  from  reading  the  Bible  ?  These  little 
heathen  have  souls  as  imperishable,  destinies  as  momentous,  as 
the  white  heathen  in  New  York.  Must  this  half  million  be 
cared  for  ?  Ah !  that  is  a  "  point  of  disagreement  among  evan- 


648  JAY'S  WORKS. 

gelical  Christians,"  and  hence  the  Society  must  not  even  recog 
nize  the  existence  of  children  who  do  not  belong  to  their  parents. 
Permit  me  now  to  ask  your  attention  to  the  very  different 
course  pursued  by  the  Society  in  regard  to  the  traffic  in  the 
bones  and  sinews,  the  mind  and  soul  of  immortal  MAN,  and  the 
traffic  in  intoxicating  drinks.  Between  twenty  and  thirty  of 
your  tracts  are  devoted  to  the  subject  of  intemperance  in  all 
its  relations.  It  is  curious  to  observe  the  desire  of  your  writers 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  arguments  and  illustrations  furnished 
by  slavery,  and  at  the  same  time  their  extreme  caution  in 
avoiding  all  reference  to  American  slavery.  Where  even  by 
implication,  censure  is  cast  on  human  bondage,  it  is  human 
bondage  in  other  countries  than  our  own.  In  Tract  No.  300,  to 
the  excuse  of  the  distiller,  that  he  cannot  sacrifice  his  property, 
conscience  is  made  to  answer  : 

"  Suppose  you  were  now  in  Brazil  and  the  owner  of  a  large  estab 
lishment  to  fit  out  slave-traders  with  handcuffs  for  the  coast  of  Africa, 
and  could  not  change  your  business  without  considerable  pecuniary 
sacrifice,  would  you  make  the  sacrifice,  or  would  you  keep  your  fires 
and  hammers  going  ?  " 

In  remonstrating  against  the  cruelty  of  the  traffic  in  rum,  it 
is  remarked : 

"  If  a  man  lives  only  to  make  a  descent  on  the  peaceful  abodes"  of 
Africa,  and  to  tear  away  parents  from  their  weeping  children,  and 
husbands  from  their  wives  and  homes,  where  is  the  man  that  will  deem 
this  a  moral  business  ? "  "  Other  men  will  prey  on  unoffending 
Africa  and  bear  human  sinews  across  the  ocean  to  be  sold.  Have  you 
a  right  to  do  it  ?  "  No.  305. 

Once  more,  speaking  of  the  duty  of  rescuing  the  drunkard, 
it  is  asked : 

"  What  would  you  not  do  to  pull  a  neighbor  out  of  the  water,  or  out 
of  the  fire,  or  to  deliver  him  from  Algerine  captivity  ?  "  No.  422. 

So  it  seems  the  Society  is  at  liberty  to  hold  up  as  cruel  and 
immoral  the  traffic  in  human  flesh  in  Africa,  Brazil,  and  Al 
giers,  but  not  in  our  own  land — that  being  a  "point  of  disa 
greement  among  evangelical  Christians." 


AMERICAN    TRACT    SOCIETY.  649 

And  now,  sir,  I  ask  you,  on  what  evangelical  principle  does 
the  Society  condemn  the  foreign  slave-trade  ?  Is  it  because  an 
act  of  Congress  forbids  it  ?  The  Society  has  not  yet,  I  believe, 
like  some  of  its  patrons,  elevated  the  lower  above  the  higher 
law,  and  made  the  national  statute  book  the  standard  of  right 
and  wrong.  Nor,  indeed,  can  the  advocates  of  the  supremacy 
of  the  lower  law  maintain,  that  an  act  of  Congress  can  render 
immoral  the  conduct  of  Africans,  Algerines  and  Brazilians, 
when  that  conduct  is  in  conformity  with  the  laws  of  their 
respective  countries.  Is  it  then,  in  reference  to  the  higher  law, 
the  will  of  God  revealed  in  his  blessed  gospel,  that  the  foreign 
traffic  is  condemned  ?  If  so,  then  I  ask  to  what  divine  precept 
is  it  opposed  ?  Buying  and  selling  and  the  exchange  of  com 
modities  are  essential  to  human  society,  and  are  nowhere  con 
demned  in  God's  word.  Why  then,  sir,  I  ask  in  all  seriousness 
is  it  more  immoral  for  an  African  to  sell,  or  a  Brazilian  to  buy 
men  and  women,  than  apes  and  parrots  ?  Is  it  because  men  and 
women  are  not  by  the  higher  law  subjects  of  commerce  ?  Be 
fore  you  reply  in  the  affirmative,  remember  that  our  laws? 
framed  for  the  most  part  by  evangelical  Christians,  expressly 
declare  vast  multitudes  of  men  and  women  to  be  mere  chattels, 
vendible  articles.  Said  Henry  Clay,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate, 
vindicating  property  in  man,  "  that  is  property  which  the  law 
makes  property."  Now,  every  slave  sold  in  Africa  to  a  Brazil 
ian  merchant,  is  property  by  the  African  law,  and  is  granted, 
bargained,  sold,  and  delivered  by  a  title  as  valid  as  that  ever 
received  by  Mr.  Clay  to  one  of  his  slaves.  Again,  then,  I  ask, 
why  is  the  sale  and  purchase  of  a  man  in  Africa,  most  undoubt 
edly  a  heinous  crime,  while  the  immorality  of  the  sale  and  pur 
chase  in  Virginia  of  a  fellow  countryman  and  perhaps  a  fellow 
Christian,  is  such  an  abstruse  question,  that  the  American  Tract 
Society  will  not  venture  to  approach  its  discussion  ?  Can  it  be 
that  your  Society  is  silent  on  this  traffic,  because  it  is  sanctioned 
by  human  law  ?  This  can  hardly  be,  since  the  Society  is 
unsparing  in  its  denunciations  of  the  traffic  in  rum,  notwith 
standing  the  powers  that  be,  ordained  as  they  are  of  God,  have 

00* 


650  JAY'S  WORKS. 

taken  the  traffic  tinder  their  peculiar  guardianship.     Very  irrev 
erently  does  your  tract  speak  of 

"  Stale  debauch,  forth  issuing  from  the  sties 
That  LAW  has  licensed."    No.  240. 

You  are  silent  on  slavery  because,  as  you  say,  on  no  other 
subject  probably  "  are  evangelical  Christians  more  at  variance." 
I  think,  sir,  you  greatly  overrate  the  evangelical  patrons  and 
advocates  of  slavery.  I  doubt  whether  you  can  find  one 
hundred  evangelical  Christians  out  of  the  slave  States,  uncon 
nected  in  any  way  with  slavery,  slave-holders,  and  cotton,  who 
will  publicly  avow  that  American  slavery  is  a  righteous  institu 
tion,  and  the  slave  code  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  and  pre 
cepts  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  Surely,  surely,  sir,  I  should  make 
a  most  extravagant  and  reckless  estimate  were  I  to  compute  the 
evangelical  champions  of  slave-breeding,  slave-trading,  and 
slave-catching,  at  a  tythe  of  the  evangelicals  who  in  their 
practice  repudiate  total  abstinence  from  intoxicating  drinks. 
Nevertheless,  on  this  last  "  point  of  evangelical  disagreement," 
the  Society  expresses  itself  without  fear  and  without  reserve. 

But  some  of  our  friends,  you  may  say,  insist  that  the  Bible 
sanctions  slavery,  and  what  can  we  do  ?  And  some  of  your 
friends  also  insist  that  the  Bible  sanctions  moderate  drinking, 
and  the  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks,  and  what  do  you  do  ?  Why, 
you  tell  us 

"  The  great  laws  of  morals  are  indeed  unchanged,  but  the  degrees  of 
light  and  knowledge  which  men  possess  may  be  very  different.  We 
should  not  deem  it  right  to  apply  our  laws  and  knowledge  in  judging 
of  the  law's  of  Sparta  which  authorized  theft  —  nor  our  views  of  the 
marriage  relation,  to  condemn  the  conduct  of  Abraham,  David  and 
Jacob.  Man's  conduct  is  to  be  estimated  by  the  light  he  has." 

To  the  plea  that  the  Bible  does  not  prohibit  the  traffic  it  is 
answered : 

"  Where  is  there  a  formal  prohibition  of  piracy,  or  bigamy,  or  kid 
napping,  or  suicide,  or  duelling,  or  the  sale  of  obscene  books  and 
paintings?  .  .  .  The  truth  is,  that  the  Bible  has  laid  down  great 
principles  of  conduct,  which  on  all  these  subjects  could  be  easily 
applied,  which  are  applied,  and  which  under  the  guidance  of  equal 
honesty  may  be  as  easily  applied  to  the  subject  of  which  I  am  speak 
ing."  No.  305. 


AMERICAN    TRACT    SOCIETY.  651 

To  assail  slavery  is  to  assail  its  supporters,  and  you  think 
that  the  Society,  by  discussing  the  subject,  would  alienate  mul 
titudes  of  its  best  friends.  Similar  delicacy,  or,  if  you  please, 
prudence  has  not  been  observed  towards  the  advocates  of 
moderate  drinking. 

"  Our  next  opposition  is  from  a  band  clothed  in  white  —  professors 
of  our  holy  religion  —  enlisted  soldiers  of  the  CHURCH,  engaged  to 
every  good  work  of  benevolence :  they  conie  to  intercede  for  the 
MONSTER,  (moderate  drinking,)  and  oppose  our  enterprise.  What 
can  be  the  meaning  of  this?  O,  where  lies  this  astonishing  witchery? 
What  has  put  the  CHURCH  TO  SLEEP  ?  What  has  made  her  angry 
at  the  call  to  come  forth  from  the  embrace  of  her  deadliest  foe  ?  "  No. 
240. 

Were  the  inquiry  made,  what  witchery  has  made  the  CHURCH 
blind,  and  deaf  and  dumb,  in  regard  to  the  groans  and  sufferings 
of  millions  on  our  soil  denied  the  word  of  God,  and  forcibly 
kept  in  ignorance  and  degradation  ?  —  the  true  answer  would 
be,  I  am  persuaded,  "  The  neutrality  of  the  American  Tract 
Society,  and  the  vast  number  of  the  clergy,  to  whom  the  fear  of 
man  has  proved  a  snare." 

Very  strange  is  it  that  while  the  Society  will  not  even  hint 
dislike  to  slavery,  it  brings  against  the  traffic  in  rum  an  array 
of  arguments  equally  effective  and  valid  against  the  traffic  in 
men,  women  and  children.  Thus  you  urge  the  duty  of  doing  as 
you  would  be  done  by,  and  the  remorse  we  shall  feel  at  death 
for  the  suffering  we  have  inflicted,  and  the  great  command 
to  love  our  neighbor  (No.  242)  —  our  responsibility  to  God  for 
the  results  of  our  own  selfishness  (No.  300)  —  the  waste  of 
human  happiness  (No.  240) — that  the  traffic  "tears  asunder 
the  strongest  bonds  of  society,  it  severs  the  tenderest  ties  of 
nature"  (No.  249).  To  the  plea  of  the  riunseller  that  his 
trade  is  his  livelihood,  it  is  answered,  "  beg,  dig,  do  anything, 
but  this.  It  would  be  a  glorious  martyrdom  to  starve,  con 
trasted  with  obtaining  a  livelihood  by  such  an  employment" 
(No.  305).  "Where  have  you  derived  authority  to  procure  a 
living  at  a  sacrifice  of  conscience,  cheracter  and  the  dearest  in 
terests  of  others  ?  "  (No.  239.) 

The  Society  shrinks  from  the  opposition  it  would  encounter 


652  JAY'S  WORKS. 

from  slave-holders.  In  your  letter  already  quoted,  you  vindi 
cate  "the  peaceful  course  pursued  by  the  Society,"  and  you 
say 

"  When  there  shall  be  unity  of  sentiment,  and  a  treatise  of  standard 
value  shall  be  written,  such  as  the  Committee  can  approve,  then  there 
will  be  propriety  in  claiming  that  a  Tract  press  shall  engage  in  this 
branch  of  moral  discussion." 

Unless  I  mistake  your  meaning,  there  is  here  an  implied 
promise,  that  when  all  evangelical  Christians  are  united  in  con 
demning  slavery,  both  in  theory  and  practice,  and  when  of  course 
the  monster  is  at  his  last  gasp,  and  there  is  no  use  in  striking 
another  blow,  then  the  Society  will  attack  him,  provided  the 
Committee  shall  cordially  agree  as  to  the  weapon  to  be  used. 
In  the  meantime,  while  the  monster  is  in  full  vigor  and  extend 
ing  his  ravages,  you  think  it  best,  "  that  at  least  one  institution 
should  move  forward  on  the  simple  errand  that  brought  the 
Saviour  into  the  world  —  proclaiming  Christ  and  him  crucified," 
&c.  Happy  is  it,  sir,  that  this  desire  for  peace,  this  longing  to 
proclaim  Christ  and  him  crucified,  without  heeding  popular  and 
prevailing  sins,  was  not  felt  by  the  Society  till  after  it  had  done 
battle  against  gamblers,  dancers,  theatre-goers,  Sabbath-break 
ers,  moderate  drinkers,  and  rumsellers.  Your  tracts  against 
intemperance  display  anything  but  a  non-resistant  spirit.  For 
example  — 

"  The  demon  will  daunt  the  timid.  It  is  noisy  and  fiery;  attack  it, 
and  it  will  roll  its  eyes  and  snap  its  teeth,  and  threaten  vengeance. 
Attempt  to  starve  it,  and  it  will  rage  like  the  famished  tiger.  Thou 
sands  have  fed  it  against  their  consciences  rather  than  meet  its  fury. 
But  fear  not.  Be  firm — be  decided — be  courageous,  connect  your 
cause  with  Heaven.  It  is  the  cause  of  God,  the  cause  for  which 
Immanuel  died.  Let  the  demon  no  longer  hide  in  the  sanctuary.  Expel 
forever  the  accursed  enemy,  that  the  Lord  may  bless  us  with  life  and 
peace."  No.  240. 

Possibly  the  Society  has  deemed  it  its  duty  to  cooperate  with 
Union  Saving  Committees  and  Baltimore  politicians,  and  cotton 
merchants,  in  their  patriotic  efforts  to  suppress  all  discussion  of 
the  "  delicate  subject,"  a  discussion  having  such  disturbing  in 
fluences  on  northern  trade  and  politics.  Yet  such  a  supposition 


AMERICAN    TRACT    SOCIETY.  653 

cannot   be   allowed,  after   the   noble  testimony  borne  by  the 
Society  to  the  right  and  benefit  of  free  discussion. 

"  There  are  some  great  principles  in  regard  to  our  country  which  are 
settled,  and  which  are  never  to  be  violated  so  long  as  our  liberties  are 
safe.  Among  them  are  these  :  that  every  subject  may  be  subjected  to 
candid  and  most  free  discussion;  that  public  opinion,  enlightened  and 
correct,  may  be  turned  against  any  course  of  evil  conduct ;  that  public 
opinion  is,  under  God,  the  prime  source  of  security  to  our  laws  and 
morals,  and  that  men  may  be  induced  by  ample  discussion,  and  by  the 
voice  of  conscience  and  of  reason,  to  abandon  any  course  that  is 
erroneous."  No.  305. 

Such  are  the  rights  and  benefits  of  discussion  when  directed 
against  the  seller  of  rum ;  do  they  lose  all  their  virtue  when 
directed  against  the  seller  of  human  flesh  ? 

Perhaps  your  Society  revolts  at  the  idea  of  descending  into 
the  arena  of  politics,  but  if  so,  how  are  we  to  understand  the 
following  exhortation  ?  "  Let  all  who  regard  the  virtue,  the 
honor,  and  the  patriotism  of  the  country,  withhold  their  suffrages 
from  those  candidates  who  offer  ardent  spirits  as  a  bribe  to 
secure  their  elevation  to  office."  But  suppose  they  offer  as  a 
bribe  to  secure  their  elevation  to  office,  not  a  glass  of  brandy 
and  water,  but  a  fresh  discovered  law  of  physical  geography, 
precluding  all  legal  restraints  on  the  extension  of  human  bond 
age —  Baltimore  platforms,  to  destroy  the  liberty  of  speech, 
of  the  press,  and  the  pulpit  —  indictments  for  high  treason, 
offering  to  the  Southern  Moloch  the  blood  of  Christians,  who,  in 
the  fear  of  God,  refuse  when  summoned  to  join  in  slave-hunts  — 
shall  we  withhold  our  suffrages  ? 

On  the  whole,  sir,  I  cannot  but  think  that  your  Society  has 
greatly  mistaken  its  duty  to  God  and  man,  in  shrinking  from 
pronouncing  slavery,  as  well  as  gambling  and  horse-racing,  a 
moral  evil.  Unquestionably,  the  Society  has  acted  in  perfect 
accordance  with  the  general  policy  of  the  northern  church,  both 
Popish  and  Protestant.  That  policy  is  more  easily  understood 
than  vindicated.  So  intimate  are  our  commercial  relations  with 
the  South,  and  so  dependent  are  our  politicians  for  the  most 
trifling  office  upon  the  support  of  their  party  by  southern  votes, 
that  to  ask  them  and  our  merchants  to  participate  in  measures 


654  JAY'S  WORKS. 

and  opinions  offensive  to  their  southern  patrons,  is  like  asking 
the  favor  of  them  to  pluck  out  a  right  eye,  or  cut  off  a  right 
hand.  Of  course,  the  pecuniary  and  party  interests  of  these 
men  react  on  the  church  and  religious  societies  with  which  they 
are  connected.  Hence  has  grown  up  a  secular  and  ecclesiastical 
alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  with  slavery.  But  this  alliance, 
although  undoubtedly  embracing  many  worthy  men,  is  neverthe 
less  in  direct  antagonism  with  the  gospel  of  Christ,  and  has 
consequently  led,  and  is  daily  leading  to  most  disastrous  results. 
It  has  caused  the  avowal  by  men  of  high  position  in  both  church 
and  state,  of  principles  utterly  subversive  of  that  regard  for  jus 
tice  and  mercy,  which  is  not  only  one  of  the  peculiar  and  beautiful 
features  of  our  holy  religion,  but  also,  and  especially  in  a  De 
mocracy,  one  of  the  strongest  safeguards  of  person  and  property. 
Some  slave-holders  in  Congress  propose  a  law,  the  provisions  of 
which  may  well  have  been  inspired  by  that  evil  and  malignant 
spirit  that  goeth  about  seeking  whom  he  may  devour  —  a  law 
openly  setting  at  defiance  the  established  rules  of  evidence,  and 
levelling  in  the  dust  all  the  barriers  erected  by  the  common  law 
around  the  personal  liberty  of  the  citizen  —  a  law  requiring  every 
man,  at  the  summons  of  a  miscreant  slave-catcher,  to  assist  him 
in  his  damnable  work  —  a  law  seeking  by  fine  and  imprisonment 
to  suppress  the  impulses  of  humanity  and  the  gushings  of  Chris 
tian  sympathy.  No  sooner  is  this  accursed  law  proposed,  than 
rival  politicians  contend  for  the  honor  of  giving  it  their  support ; 
and  no  sooner  is  it  enacted,  than  the  two  great  rival  parties 
strive  to  gain  votes  for  their  presidential  candidates  by  pledging 
their  best  endeavors  to  carry  it  into  execution.  Many  indi 
viduals,  however,  affirm  that  a  law  thus  requiring  them  to  par 
ticipate  in  deeds  of  cruelty  and  injustice,  is  at  variance  with  the 
divine  commands.  Forthwith  we  have  our  public  men  and  our 
party  press  sneering  at  the  "  higher  law,"  and  insulting  all  who 
acknowledge  its  paramount  authority  to  an  act  of  Congress  ;  worse 
than  all,  we  have  our  ministers  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  descanting 
from  their  pulpits  on  the  reverence  due  to  the  "  powers  that  be," 
as  ordained  of  God,  and  actually  urging  the  duty  of  obedience 
to  one  of  the  most  ungodly  and  execrable  enactments  of  modern 


AMERICAN    TRACT    SOCIETY.  655 

legislation.  Occasionally  it  was  indeed  admitted,  that  under 
peculiar  circumstances,  and  multiplied  conditions,  we  ought  to 
obey  God  rather  than  man,  but  at  the  same  time  it  was  distinctly 
taught,  not  merely  that  we  should  not  forcibly  resist  the  Fugitive 
Law,  but  that  the  "  higher  law  "  did  not  dispense  with  our  ob 
ligation  to  catch  slaves. 

In  the  zeal,  the  rivalry  and  the  cruelty  displayed  in  seizing 
the  hapless  and  innocent  fugitive,  and  hurrying  him  back  to  the 
house  of  bondage,  of  mental  darkness  and  bodily  suffering,  lessons 
of  cruelty  and  injustice  have  been  set  by  the  rich  and  moral, 
which  will  not  be  lost  on  the  needy  and  profligate.  Many  of 
our  wealthy  and  influential  gentlemen  are  sowing  seeds  which 
may  yet  yield  to  them  and  their  children  most  bitter  fruit. 

The  shocking  insensibility  of  our  churches,  religious  societies 
and  religious  men,  to  the  iniquities  of  slavery,  of  course  involves 
them  in  gross  inconsistencies,  degrades  the  character  of  the  gos 
pel  of  Christ,  and  gives  a  mighty  impulse  to  infidelity.  Never 
before,  in  my  opinion,  has  the  American  Church  been  in  such 
peril  as  at  present,  and  from  almost  every  portion  of  it  comes 
up  a  cry  of  distress.  There  is  no  failure  of  money.  The  coun 
try  is  rich,  and  our  wealthy  men  are  liberal,  and  pride  and 
OvStentation  and  competition  secure  the  erection  of  gorgeous  and 
expensive  churches.  But  there  is  a  failure  of  increase  of  min 
isters  and  members.  The  population  is  outgrowing  the  church, 
and  the  love  of  many  is  waxing  cold.  From  men  like  Tom 
Paine  and  most  of  his  followers  the  church  has  little  to  fear. 
They  hate  the  gospel  because  their  deeds  are  evil.  Their  lives 
are  a  sufficient  antidote  to  their  doctrines.  But  a  new  class  of 
converts  to  infidelity  is  springing  up,  men  whose  fearless  and 
disinterested  fidelity  to  truth,  mercy  and  justice,  extort  unwilling 
respect.  These  men  reject  the  gospel,  not  because  it  rebukes 
their  vices,  but  because  they  are  taught  by  certain  of  its  clergy, 
and  the  conduct  of  a  multitude  of  its  professors,  that  it  sanctions 
the  most  horrible  cruelty  and  oppression,  allowing  the  rich  and 
powerful  forcibly  to  reduce  the  poor  and  helpless  to  the  condi 
tion  of  working  animals,  articles  of  commerce,  and  to  keep  their 
posterity  in  ignorance  and  degradation  to  the  end  of  time. 


656  JAY'S  WORKS. 

Every  argument  wrested  from  the  Bible  in  behalf  of  slavery 
applies  to  the  bondage  of  white  men.  Hence  the  modern  pro- 
slavery  divinity  justifies  the  ancient  villanage  and  the  modern 
serfdom,  and  would  justify  their  indefinite  extension.  If  it  be 
right  to  hold  three  millions  of  human  beings  as  chattels,  it  is 
equally  right  to  hold  hundreds  of  millions.  Hence  Christianity, 
if  it  indeed  authorizes  this  unlimited  despotism  of  the  strong 
over  the  weak  —  this  vast  indefinite  annihilation  of  the  conjugal 
and  parental  relations  —  this  total  abrogation  of  the  rights  of 
conscience,  of  property,  of  personal  happiness,  has  surely  little 
claim  to  our  reverence,  for  its  tendency  to  mitigate  the  sorrows 
and  troubles  of  the  present  life.  Certainly  it  is  not  wonderful 
that  benevolent,  well-meaning  men  should  question  divine  au 
thority  of  a  religion  sanctioning  such  tremendous  enormities,  and 
whose  professors  recommend  the  catching  of  slaves,  as  a  service 
acceptable  to  the  Deity,  when  required  by  act  of  Congress. 

Most  orthodox,  sir,  is  the  faith  professed  by  the  Society  ?  I 
thank  my  God  and  Heavenly  Father  that  he  has  given  me 
grace  to  embrace  with  my  whole  heart  and  understanding  the 
doctrines  you  denominate  evangelical.  But  it  behoves  us  all  to 
remember  that  a  workless  faith  is  a  worthless  faith.  Can  we 
refuse  obedience  to  the  second  of  the  two  great  commandments 
on  which  hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets,  and  yet  hope  to  be 
saved  for  our  orthodoxy  ?  Very  properly  your  Society  has  not 
confined  itself  to  the  simple  proclamation  of  Christ  and  him 
crucified,  but  has  added  practice  to  faith  by  assailing  sin  in  its 
various  forms,  laboring  to  convince  the  sinner  of  his  guilt,  and 
striving  to  excite  him  to  repentance  and  reformation.  But  the 
sin  most  rampant  in  our  land  —  a  sin  which  counts  its  victims 
by  millions,  and  its  perpetrators,  abettors  and  apologists  by  mil 
lions  more  —  a  sin  which  taints  our  holy  things,  enfeebles  our 
churches,  corrupts  our  statesmen,  sways  our  judges,  hardens  the 
hearts  of  our  people,  blunts  their  sense  of  mercy  and  justice, 
and  which  is  crowding  the  ranks  of  infidelity  —  this  sin  may 
not  be  mentioned  in  our  fashionable  pulpits  to  "  ears  polite,"  nor 
even  alluded  to  in  the  multifarious  publications  of  the  American 
Tract  Society. 


AMERICAN    TRACT    SOCIETY.  657 

And  now,  sir,  what  is  to  be  done  ?  Your  response  of  course 
is,  NOTHING.  You  will  be  at  no  loss  for  arguments  to  show  that 
any  anti-slavery  action  on  your  part  will  not  merely  diminish 
your  receipts,  and  thus  lessen  your  ability  to  do  good,  but  will 
also  prevent  your  tracts  and  volumes  from  conveying  religious 
truth  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  slave  States.  The  question  of 
duty  is  not  to  be  decided  by  an  estimate  of  probable  receipts. 
Nor  is  it  by  any  means  certain  that  your  policy  is  the  wisest  in 
a  pecuniary  sense,  or  that  one  or  two  tracts  condemning  Ameri 
can  slavery  as  a  moral  evil  would  prove  injurious  to  your 
treasury.  The  persistence  of  the  American  Board  in  counte 
nancing  slavery  in  its  mission  churches,  in  deference  to  the  contri 
butions  of  its  southern  patrons,  called  into  existence  the  present 
flourishing  and  efficient  "American  Missionary  Association," 
daily  growing  in  strength  and  public  favor.  This  new  institution 
is  almost  wholly  supported  by  former  subscribers  to  the  Board. 
In  the  last  report  of  the  Board,  I  find  the  total  amount  of  do 
nations  received  the  preceding  year  stated  at  $299,703.90.  Of 
this  sum,  $10,267.25  came  from  the  slave  States  and  the  District 
of  Columbia.  Now  the  last  report  of  the  Association  announces 
the  receipt  of  $31,134.60  for  the  past  year.  Nearly  every  cent 
of  this  sum  is  virtually  a  premium  paid  by  the  Board  on  its 
southern  subscriptions !  The  American  Tract  Society,  if  I  am 
not  much  mistaken,  is  destined  to  pay  a  premium  of  the  like 
kind. 

You  will  perhaps  say  that  it  is  better  our  southern  brethren 
should  be  saved  as  slave-holders,  breeders,  and  traders,  than  not 
at  all,  and  therefore  you  will  not  touch  the  subject  of  slavery, 
because  if  you  do,  you  cannot  reach  them  with  your  tracts,  which 
under  God  might  lead  to  their  conversion  and  salvation.  If 
this  principle  be  correct,  it  is  of  wide  application.  The  Terri 
tory  of  Utah  is  acquiring  a  large  population,  and  will  soon  claim 
admission  into  the  Union.  The  people  are  polygamists,  but  it 
is  better  they  should  be  saved  as  such  than  not  at  all.  Hence 
it  becomes  the  duty  of  the  Society,  for  fear  of  offending  them,  to 
avoid  all  allusion  to  the  Christian  doctrine  of  marriage,  and  to 
"  move  forward  on  the  simple  errand  that  brought  the  Saviour 
56 


658  JAY'S  WORKS. 

into  the  world,  proclaiming  Christ  and  him  crucified,"  and  thus 
rendering  the  tracts  acceptable  and  useful  to  our  Mormon  breth 
ren.  So,  also,  as  the  usefulness  of  the  minister  of  Christ  de 
pends  on  his  message  being  heard,  he  ought  to  preach  smooth 
things,  lest  by  offending  his  people,  by  telling  them  unwelcome 
truth,  he  drive  them  beyond  the  sound  of  the  gospel. 

I  believe,  sir,  not  only  that  this  reasoning  is  unsound,  but  that 
the  apprehension  on  which  it  is  founded  is  groundless.  It  is  not 
desired  by  any  that  your  institution  should  be  converted  into  an 
anti-slavery,  any  more  than  into  an  anti-gambling  tract  society. 
All  that  is  asked  is,  that  this  great  and  influential  Christian 
association  should  publicly  dissent  from  the  impious  claim  made 
by  the  advocates  of  American  slavery,  that  this  vast  mass  of 
accumulated  sin  and  misery  is  sanctioned  by  the  God  of  mercy 
and  justice,  and  allowed  by  the  crucified  Redeemer  —  in  other 
words,  that  American  slavery  should  share  in  the  condemnation 
you  bestow  on  "  the  theatre,  the  circus  and  the  horse-race." 

Were  you  to  issue  one  or  two  tracts  against  American  slavery 
as  a  moral  evil,  will  it  be  ^seriously  contended  that  thenceforth 
none  of  your  thousands  of  publications  on  other  subjects  would 
be  allowed  to  cross  the  frontiers  of  the  slave  region  ?  Recollect, 
sir,  that  when  a  human  chattel  of  three  years  will  bring  $300 
at  auction,  and  its  two  parents  from  $1,500  to  $2,000,  slaves  are 
and  must  be  the  possession  only  of  the  rich.  By  the  census  of 
1840  (I  have  not  the  last  at  hand)  there  were  in  the  slave 
States,  1,016,307  white  males  over  twenty  years  of  age,  and  of 
these, — 'Various  data  assure  me  it  is  a  very  liberal  estimate, — 
200,000  were  the  holders  of  slaves.  And  is  it  possible,  sir,  that 
of  this  prodigious  majority  of  non-slaveholders,  none  will  read 
any  of  your  biographies  and  religious  treatises,  because  they 
may  have  heard  that  you  have  published  one  or  two  little  tracts 
against  a  sin  of  which  they  are  themselves  guiltless  ?  When 
"  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "  is  sold  and  read  at  the  South,  is  it  credible 
that  a  few  slave-holders  can  exclude  all  your  millions  of  pages 
from  the  vast  southern  region"?  Can  your  agents  and  colpor 
teurs  be  excluded  from  fifteen  States  of  this  Union,  because  of 
the  mighty  mass  of  your  publications,  twenty  or  thirty  pages 


AMERICAN    TRACT    SOCIETY.  659 

are  directed  against  the  conduct  of  a  few  rich  men?  The 
apprehension  that  should  the  Society  be  faithful  to  the  calls  of 
duty  its  efficiency  for  good  would  be  impaired,  is  not,  in  my 
opinion,  consistent  with  that  Chistian  faith  so  forcibly  inculcated 
in  many  of  your  tracts.  For  myself,  I  firmly  believe  that 
before  long  the  Society  will  find  its  present  policy  productive 
not  of  strength,  but  of  weakness.  That  policy  has  given  birth 
to  the  "  American  Reform  Tract  and  Book  Society."  In  a  late 
acknowledgment  of  receipts  by  this  infant  institution  I  observe 
contributions  from  no  less  than  eight  States. 

To  me  it  seems  obvious  that  Christians  entertaining  such  con 
tradictory  views  of  the  divine  attributes  of  the  spirit  of  the 
gospel  and  of  Christian  obligation  as  are  involved  in  the  justi 
fication  and  condemnation  of  American  slavery,  cannot  much 
longer  act  together  in  sending  missionaries  to  preach,  or  em 
ploying  the  press  to  inculcate  a  religion  respecting  the  funda 
mental  moral  principles  of  which  the  two  parties  entertain  such 
antagonistic  opinions. 

It  is  one  of  the  incidents  of  our  imperfect  state,  that  sincere 
Christians  often  think  they  are  doing  God  service,  while  pursu 
ing  opposite  paths,  and  when  of  course  one  or  the  other  must 
tend  in  a  wrong  direction.  May  we  accord  to  others  the  charity 
we  ask  for  ourselves,  and  I  pray  God  that  those  who  condemn 
in  others  the  sin  of  oppressing  their  brethren,  may  feel  their 
own  unworthiness,  and  remember  that  they  themselves,  no  less 
than  the  wretched  slave-catcher,  need  to  be  washed  in  that  blood 
which  alone  clean  seth  from  all  sin. 
I  am,  reverend  sir, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

WILLIAM  JAY. 


LETTER 

TO  LEWIS  TAPPAN,  ESQ.,  TREASURER  OF  THE  AMERICAN 
MISSIONARY   ASSOCIATION. 


DEAR  SIR  :  —  I  have  read  with  great  pain  the  exposure,  in  a 
late  number  of  the  American  Missionary,  of  the  conduct  of  the 
American  Board  in  relation  to  the  Choctaw  and  Cherokee  In 
dians.  This  powerful  Society  has  established  missions  in  these 
two  tribes  of  our  Aborigines,  who  have  so  far  advanced  in 
civilization  and  the  adoption  of  "  our  institutions "  as  to  hold 
and  use  certain  of  their  fellow-men  as  beasts  of  burden.  The 
missionaries  sent  among  these  people,  instead  of  teaching  them 
the  Christian  duties  of  justice  and  mercy,  have  virtually  in 
structed  them  that  they  might  be  good  Christians  without  loving 
their  neighbors,  or  doing  to  others  as  they  would  others  should 
do  unto  them.  Says  a  Secretary  of  the  Board,  who  had  visited 
the  missions,  "  It  does  not  seem  to  have  been  the  aim  of  the 
brethren  (missionaries)  to  exert  any  direct  influence,  either  by 
their  public  or  private  teachings,  upon  the  system  of  slavery." 

In  the  last  Report  we  find  the  Board  extolling  their  converts 
as  saints,  and  eulogizing  the  governments  established  by  these 
slave-holding    Indians,   although   tolerating  and    perpetrating 
atrocities  unknown  to  the  despotisms  of  Europe. 
56* 


We  are  told,  p.  29,  "  The  Choctaws  have  a  GOOD  GOVERN 
MENT.  They  have  a  written  constitution,  with  a  declaration  of 
rights,  which  embodies  the  liberty  of  the  press,  trial  by  jury,  the 
rights  of  conscience,  proper  safeguards  of  person  and  property, 
the  equality  of  Christian  denominations,  and  almost  every  great 
principle  of  civil  and  religious  freedom." 

Certainly  the  Board  are  by  no  means  ultra  in  their  ideas  of 
civil  and  religious  freedom,  and  the  rights  of  conscience.  What 
is  the  religious  freedom  of  their  own  missionaries  ?  u  If  any 
citizen  of  the  United  States,"  says  a  law  of  this  good  govern 
ment,  "  acting  as  A  MISSIONARY  OR  PREACHER,  or  whatever  his 
occupation  may  be,  is  found  to  take  an  active  part  in  favoring 
the  principles  and  notions  of  the  most  fatal  and  destructive 
doctrines  of  the  abolitionists,  he  shall  be  compelled  to  leave  the 
nation,  and  for  ever  stay  out  of  it."  Of  course,  men  of  God 
like  Wesley,  Hopkins,  and  Edwards,  are  disqualified  from 
preaching  the  gospel  among  the  Choctaws  ;  for  such  men  would 
not,  like  the  missionaries  of  the  Board,  consent  to  be  gagged  on 
the  obligation  to  do  justice  and  love  mercy.  Not  only  must 
these  missionaries  be  dumb  on  the  iniquities  of  slavery,  but  they 
can  remain  at  their  posts  only  on  condition  of  not  violating  the 
law  of  CASTE,  since  the  statute  declares  that  allowing  slaves 
"  to  sit  at  table  with  them  shall  be  ground  to  convict  persons  of 
favoring  the  principles  and  notions  of  abolitionism."  So,  if  a 
missionary  presumes  to  eat  with  a  slave,  perhaps  his  spiritual 
son  in  the  gospel,  he  is  to  be  expelled  the  nation,  and  ever 
stay  out  of  it !  and  so  he  is,  if  he  dares  to  teach  a  slave  to  read 
the  Bible  without  the  consent  of  his  master !  This  good  gov 
ernment  provides  "  proper  safeguards  of  persons  and  property" 
by  enacting  that  a  slave  shall  possess  no  property,  and  that  his 
person  shall  be  a  vendible  article.  "  Civil  freedom  "  is  secured 
by  a  law  which  declares  that  if  any  free  negroes  shall  return 
into  the  nation,  "  they  shall  be  seized  and  sold  to  the  highest  bidder 
for  life"  By  another  law,  any  free  negro  presuming  to  enter 
and  remain  in  the  nation  is  to  receive  one  hundred  lashes  on 
his  bare  back,  and  to  forfeit  all  the  property  he  may  possess ! 

We  are  officially  assured,  p.  32,  that  "  The  Cherokees  hare 


AMERICAN   MISSIONARY   ASSOCIATION.  663 

AN  EXCELLENT  GOVERNMENT  :  the  usual  safeguards  for  person, 
property,  the  rights  of  conscience,  &c.,  are  provided."  This 
same  excellent  government  deprives  of  all  the  rights  of  citizen 
ship  every  child  of  a  red  man  by  a  black  or  yellow  wife,  declares 
void  every  marriage  of  the  kind,  and  subjects  the  parties  to 
scourging  !  Whoever  teaches  a  slave,  or  any  free  negro,  not  of 
Cherokee  blood,  to  read  or  write,  is  to  be  fined  from  $100  to 
$500.  This  exception  in  favor  of  negroes  of  their  own  blood 
is  a  natural  prejudice  which  our  more  civilized  slave-holders 
have  most  effectually  conquered.  In  our  Christian  slave  codes 
we  find  no  favor  whatever  shown  to  negroes  of  Anglo-Saxon 
blood.  Free  negroes  are  to  be  expelled  from  the  nation. 

And  now  I  ask,  what  is  the  inference  to  be  drawn  from  this 
strange,  false,  blundering,  but  official  eulogy  of  these  Indian 
slave-holding  governments  ?  Why,  that  the  slave  codes  of  our 
Southern  States,  with  all  their  execrable  wickedness,  crushing 
in  the  dust  THREE  MILLIONS  of  immortal  beings,  are  perfectly 
compatible  with  good  and  excellent  government !  Even  the 
government  of  South  Carolina,  under  which  more  than  one  half 
of  the  whole  population,  men,  women,  and  children,  are  articles 
of  merchandise,  and  robbed  of  every  civil  and  religious  right,  is 
a  proper  subject  of  Christian  eulogy !  What  amount  of  tyranny, 
cruelty,  and  wickedness  constitutes  a  lad  government,  we  are 
not  informed.  Certainly  the  Board  has  relieved  itself  from  all 
suspicion  of  anti-slavery  fanaticism,  and  has  proved  itself  de 
serving  the  pecuniary  patronage  of  our  "  southern  brethren." 
A  few  years  since,  in  consequence  of  pressure  from  without,  it 
announced  to  the  public  that  "  it  can  sustain  no  relation  to  sla 
very  which  implies  approbation  of  the  system,  and  as  a  Board 
can  have  no  connection  or  sympathy  with  it."  But,  like  many 
others,  the  Board  has  since  "  conquered  its  prejudices." 

It  may  be  asked,  Would  you  abandon  these  Indians  to  heath 
enism  because  they  are  slave-holders  ?  I  answer,  I  would  not 
present  the  gospel  to  these  or  any  other  people  in  such  a  form 
as  to  lead  them  to  believe  that  Christianity  authorized  them  to 
abandon  to  heathenism  the  poor  and  oppressed  among  them,  by 
subjecting  them  to  enforced  ignorance  and  degradation  ;  and  this 


664  JAY'S  WORKS. 

is  what  the  Board  is  virtually  doing.  But  why  prefer  preaching 
the  gospel  under  a  gag,  to  preaching  it  with  perfect  freedom 
to  other  Indians  who  hold  no  slaves  ?  Had  the  missionaries, 
with  Christian  firmness  and  fidelity,  pointed  out  to  these  Indians 
the  wickedness  of  their  laws,  and  the  inconsistency  of  their 
slave-holding  with  the  precepts  of  Christianity,  they  would  no 
doubt  have  done  great  good ;  and  had  they  been  expelled  for 
their  fidelity,  they  would  have  honored  Christ  by  suffering  in 
his  cause,  instead  of  bringing  a  reproach  on  his  religion  by  their 
time-serving  policy.  In  such  a  case,  the  Board  would  have  lost 
some,  perhaps  all,  their  southern  subscribers ;  but  what  amount 
of  subscriptions  will  compensate  for  the  virtual  although  silent 
abrogation  among  these  Indian  converts  of  the  second  of  the 
two  great  commandments  on  which  hang  all  the  law  and  the 
prophets,  so  far  as  it  affects  their  obligations  to  men  not  colored 
like  themselves  ? 

I  cannot  persuade  myself  that  we  are  justified  in  the  sight  of 
God  in  concealing  any  divine  command  or  prohibition,  for  the 
purpose  of  rendering  the  gospel  more  palatable  to  those  to 
whom  we  present  it.  I  have  heretofore  occasionally  contributed 
to  the  funds  of  the  American  Board,  but  can  do  so  no  more ; 
and  I  rejoice  that  in  sending  you  the  enclosed  check*  I  have  the 
full  assurance  that  I  am  in  no  degree  strengthening  influences 
adverse  to  the  rights,  happiness,  and  religious  improvement  of 
an  afflicted  portion  of  the  human  family. 

Yours  faithfully, 

WILLIAM  JAY. 

For  one  hundred  dollars. 


INDEX. 

Abolitionists,  mobs  excited  against  them,  116;  infidelity  opposed  to 
them,  119;  charged  with  treason  and  incendiarism,  148;  ask  for 
no  violation  by  Congress  of  State  rights,  162. 

Adams,  J.  Q.,  on  the  influence  of  slavery,  512. 

Advertisements,  atrocious,  for  fugitive  slaves,  484. 

African  slave-trade,  calumnies  against  its  English  opponents,  142 ; 
history  of  its  abolition  by  Great  Britain,  210  ;  remarkable  resolu 
tion  by  six  Quakers,  210  ;  duplicity  of  American  Government  in 
regard  to  its  suppression,  276  ;  Virginia,  as  a  breeding  State,  hostile 
to  the  trade,  277;  contraband  trade  long  continued,  277;  con 
nived  at  by  officials,  279  ;  efforts  of  Congress  connected  with  the 
colonization  scheme,  282 ;  declared  to  be  piracy,  but  no  execu 
tion  under  the  law,  285  ;  treaty  of  1814 ;  its  obligations  evaded, 
285,  287;  hypocritical  negotiation  respecting  the  trade,  287; 
the  American  flag  employed  to  protect  the  trade,  292 ;  carried  on 
in  Liberia,  302  ;  history  of  the  constitutional  provision  respecting 
the  trade,  578. 

American  slave-trade  protected  by  Congress,  258,275;  its  horrors, 
259;  its  extent,  12,  264  ;  loss  of  life,  272;  power  of  Congress  to 
suppress  it,  274;  invoice  of  slaves  shipped,  429;  scene  at  Wil- 
migton,  478. 

American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  its  countenance  of  slavery,  and 
the  slave  code,  661. 

Anti-Slavery  Christians,  address  to,  621. 

Anti-Slavery  Society,  American,  its  principles,  125;  objects,  139; 
measures,  140;  calumnies  against  its  members,  141. 

Archer,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  his  testimony  of  the  utility  of  the  Colonization 
Society  to  slavery,  105. 

Bible  Society  of  New  Orleans,  gives  no  bibles  to  slaves,  475. 

Bishops,  English,  testimony  against  slavery,  436. 


666  INDEX. 

Black  Act  of  Connecticut,  39. 

Board  of  Missions,  Episcopal,  time-serving  policy,  438. 

Buxton,  Sir  F.,  his  protest  against  the  Colonization  Society,  123. 

California  and  New  Mexico,  address  to  people  of,  490 ;  faith  of  the 
Federal  Government  violated,  for  the  purpose  of  introducing 
slavery,  491. 

California,  Mr.  Clay's  plan  for  admitting  into  the  Union,  553. 

Canaan  Academy,  destroyed  by  a  pro-slavery  mob,  384. 

Canterbury,  proceedings  against  school  for  colored  girls,  384. 

Caste,  cruelty  and  wickeness  of,  441,  449,  629. 

Churches,  action  of  in  behalf  of  slavery,  412  ;  hold  and  sell  slaves,  473. 

Clay,  Henry,  letter  on  his  proposed  compromise,  553 ;  admits  the 
Wilmot  proviso  to  be  constitutional,  558 ;  proposes  to  enlarge 
Texas,  558;  to  limit  the  power  of  Congress  over  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  559  ;  proposes  new  facilities  for  slave-catch 
ing,  560;  proposes  to  guarantee  the  American  slave-trade,  565. 

Clergy  promote  infidelity  by  advocating  slavery,  435,  486  ;  their  con 
duct  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  475. 

Colonization  Society,  American,  origin  and  professed  object,  15 ; 
avows  no  principle  or  motive,  16;  supported  from  opposite  prin 
ciples  and  motives,  17;  opposed  by  the  free  blacks,  22;  excuses 
and  justifies  the  oppression  of  the  free  blacks,  24 ;  their  improve 
ment  discouraged,  28 ;  number  sent  to  Africa,  30 ;  advocated  by 
the  persecutors  of  the  free  blacks,  52 ;  influence  exerted  in  behalf 
of  slavery,  74;  expenditures,  79  ;  average  annual  export  of  manu 
mitted  slaves,  less  than  the  daily  increase  of  slaves,  80 ;  impossi 
bility  of  removing  the  slave  population,  82  ;  hostility  to  emancipa 
tion,  97,  101,  108;  acknowledges  the  right  of  property  in  man, 
99;  avows  its  tendency  to  strengthen  slavery,  106;  denounces 
abolition  societies,  114;  applauded  by  anti-abolition  mob,  118; 
infidelity  arrayed  in  its  favor,  119  ;  fostered  by  Federal  Govern 
ment,  300;  removal  of  the  slaves  would  ruin  the  slave  States,  195. 

Congress,  violence  and  immorality  of  certain  members,  514 ;  gag  rules, 
405. 

Connecticut,  disastrous  influence  of  Colonization  Society,  31,  36,38; 
inflammatory  petition  for  the  exile  of  the  free  blacks,  51. 

Constitution  of  the  United  States,  sinful  concessions  to  slave-holders, 
217;  Federal  ratio  of  representation,  and  its  consequences,  218. 

Convention  of  abolition  societies  in  1827,  113. 

Crandall,  Miss,  her  school  at  Canterbury  broken  up,  34 ;  herself  im 
prisoned,  41 ;  tried,  42  ;  convicted,  50. 


INDEX.  667 

Crummell,  Mr.,  his  treatment  in  the  Episcopal  church,  442. 

Cuba,  intrigues  of  Federal  Government  to  prevent  emancipation,  319. 

Daggett,  Judge,  his  decision  against  the  citizenship  of  colored  per 
sons  examined,  43. 

District  of  Columbia,  action  respecting  abolition  of  slavery,  214 ;  hor 
rible  law,  235  ;  freemen  sold  as  slaves,  to  pay  their  jail  fees,  238  ; 
Congress  refuses  to  interfere  in  any  way,  244 ;  Grand  Jury  pre 
sents  the  slave-trade,  268  ;  trade  described  by  Judge  Morrill,  268  ; 
denounced  by  John  Randolph,  269;  horrors  of  the  trade,  269; 
its  extent,  270;  trade  licensed,  271. 

Dogs  kept  for  hunting  slaves,  419. 

Eliot,  Samuel  A.,  letter  to  him  on  his  apology  for  voting  for  the  fugi 
tive  law,  571. 

Emancipation,  immediate  safety  of,  167,  186;  effect  of  in  the  West 
Indies,  187;  preferable  to  gradual,  191;  would  enrich  the  slave 
States,  196. 

Factory  children,  law  for  their  protection  and  education,  480. 

Federal  Government,  its  action  in  behalf  of  slavery,  234 ;  unconstitu 
tional  interference  in  catching  fugitives,  236 ;  innocent  and  free 
men  sold  as  slaves  under  its  authority,  238  ;  negotiates  for  catch 
ing  slaves  in  Canada  and  Mexico,  245,  246  ;  offers  to  catch  slaves 
for  West  India  masters,  246;  slaughter  of  fugitives  in  Florida, 
248 ;  reward  paid  for  their  slaughter,  249 ;  negotiation  for  the 
payment  of  fugitives,  and  recovery  of  shipwrecked  slaves,  249, 
252 ;  protects  the  American  slave-trade,  268  ;  summary  of  its 
action  in  behalf  of  slavery,  351 ;  efforts  to  subject  the  press  to  a 
censorship,  342.  See  Free  people  of  color. 

Florida  territory,  atrocious  law  sanctioned  by  Congress,  230. 

Forte,  Senator,  of  Mississippi,  612. 

Florida,  war  waged  in  behalf  of  slavery,  308. 

Franklin,  President  of  Pennsylvania  Abolition  Society,  113. 

Freeman,  Bishop,  his  extravagant  defence  of  slavery,  412,  416. 

Free  people  of  color,  cruel  laws  against  them,  25 ;  often  pass  for  white 
persons,  25 ;  oppressed  and  degraded  by  the  laws  of  Congress, 
232 ;  their  citizenship,  46  ;  physical  reasons  urged  against  it,  50 ; 
persecuted  in  Virginia  to  promote  colonization,  54 ;  their  opinion 
of  the  Colonization  Society,  57;  atrocious  law  in  Maryland,  93 
their  number,  371 ;  prejudice  against  them,  372 ;  their  disabilities, 
374;  base  conduct  of  the  Ohio  Legislature,  379;  excluded  from 
army  and  militia,  381 ;  and  from  all  participation  in  the  adminis- 
tion  of  justice,  382 ;  impediments  to  their  education,  383 ;  Ohio 


668  INDEX. 

laws,  385  ;  impediments  to  religious  instruction,  386  ;  impediments 

to  honest  industry,  387  ;  liability  to  be  converted  into  slaves,  389  ; 

subject  to  insult  and  outrage,  303  ;  refused  burial  in  a  church 

cemetery,  393  ;  assailed  by  mobs,  353. 
Free  States,  the,  their  responsibilities,  353. 
Fugitive  law,  if  constitutional,  still  cruel  and  unjust,  572 ;  history  of 

the  constitutional  provision  respecting  fugitives,  5  75  ;  wickedness 

of  the  law,  585 ;    unconstitutional  provisions,  591 ;    attempt  to 

enforce  the  law  by  making  those  who  resist,  traitors,  631. 
Georgia,  its  Legislature  offers  a  reward  for  the  abduction  of  a  citizen 

of  Boston,  523. 

Guadaloupe,  history  of  emancipation  in,  177. 
Hayti,  hostility  of  Federal  Government,  323.   See  St.  Domingo. 
Hopkins,  S.  M.,  strange  colonization  address  by,  103. 
Indians,  intercourse  with,  by  Federal  Government,  made  subservient 

to  slavery,  303. 
Ives,  Bishop,  vindicates  slavery,  414;  his  slave  catechism,  42-7 ;  letter 

to,  453. 

Jackson,  President,  letter  to,  364. 
Jay,  John,  President  of  New  York  Abolition  Society,  112;  opposed  to 

caste,  147. 

Jewish  servitude,  432. 
Jones,  Rev.  C.  C.,  how  treated  by  the  slaves  to  whom  he  preached,  470  ; 

his  slave  catechism,  472. 

Judson,  Andrew  T.,  his  conduct  respecting  Canterbury  school,  35. 
Laws,  slave,  129,  421. 
Liberia,  slave-trade,  129;  civilization,  64. 
Louisiana  planters,  instructed  by   a  Congressional  document  in  the 

management  of  slaves,  231. 

Macauleyr  Z.,  his  protest  against  the  Colonization  Society,  123. 
Maryland  appropriates  money  for  colonization,  avowedly  to  strengthen 

slavery,  90;  cruel  laws  against  free  blacks,  91,  93;  base  conduct 

of  the  legislature,  94. 

Mead,  Bishop,  his  prayer  in  relation  to  slaves,  100. 
Mosaic  Scriptures,  no  justification  of  American  slavery,  625. 
Nelson,  W.,  letter  to,  553. 
New  Haven  proceedings,  respecting  a  proposed  college  for  colored 

persons,  31. 

Oxford,  Bishop  of,  introductory  remarks  to  his  reproof  of  the  Ameri 
can  church,  409. 


INDEX.  ^ 

Paulding,  J.  K.,  mutilates  his  own  writings,  and  denies  his  own  asser 
tions,  vindicates  slavery,  and  is  made  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  259, 
273. 

Petition,  right  of,  address  on,  398 ;  effort  of  Congress  to  suppress  it  in 
relation  to  slavery,  347,  405. 

Pennsylvania,  disgraceful  conduct  of  Episcopal  church,  and  its  Bishop, 
446  ;  Christian  conduct  of  Presbyterian  Synod,  450. 

Preston,  Senator,  of  South  Carolina,  is  for  hanging  abolitionists,  507. 

Rewards  offered  for  the  abduction  of  northern  citizens,  523. 

Sierra  Leone,  immorality  of  the  colony,  73. 

Slave  insurrections,  199. 

Slavery,  its  legal  definition,  126,  421 ;  testimony  of  distinguished  men 
against  it,  144,  436,  456  ;  under  authority  of  Federal  Government, 
153;  atrocities  committed,  154;  danger  from  its  continuance, 
199,  203;  safety  of  its  abolition,  167,  186  ;  Roman,  416. 

Slave-holders,  their  lamentations  over  the  poor  of  England,  479  ;  their 
power  to  oppress,  compared  with  that  of  English  manufacturers, 
481;  their  number,  497;  public  murders  committed  by  them, 
524 ;  control  the  Federal  Government,  545 ;  their  future  pros 
pects,  547;  the  sources  of  their  influence  in  Congress,  220. 

Slaves,  rewards  offered  for  the  murder  of  fugitives,  424 ;  owned  and 
sold  by  churches,  4Z3  ;  their  heathenism,  463  ;  a  spurious  Chris 
tianity  offered  to  them,  460 ;  not  sincerely  embraced,  470;  num 
ber,  Jan.  1,  1835,  at  different  periods,  11;  increase  in  different 
States,  11 ;  ratio  of  increase  of  slaves  and  whites,  in  the  slave 
States,  12;  price  of,  87;  white  slaves,  261;  no  legal  marriage, 
130;  prevented  from  learning  to  read,  134;  may  not  hold  re 
ligious  meetings,  135;  free  persons  made  slaves  by  law,  127: 

Slaves,  white,  in  the  Barbary  States,  609. 

States,  slave,  increase  of  population,  497, 544  ;  education,  501 ;  industry 
503;  contempt  for  the  laboring  classes,  507;  religion,  511; 
morals,  513  ;  disregard  of  human  life,  516  ;  contempt  for  constitu 
tional  obligation,  530 ;  liberty  of  speech,  533  ;  liberty  of  the  press, 
534  ;  military  weakness,  537. 

St.  Domingo,  history  of  emancipation,  171. 

Tappan,  Lewis,  letter  to,  respecting  American  Board  of  Missions,  661. 

Testimonials  against  slavery,  144,  436,  456. 

Tyler,  John,  advocates  lawless  violence  against  abolitionists,  518. 

Texas,  used  by  Federal  Government,  to  promote  slavery,  332. 

Treason,  law  of,  used  by  Federal  Government  to  enforce  the  Fugitive 
Act,  631. 
57 


&~- 

Tract  Society,  American,  letter  on  its  silence  respecting  slavery,  and 
its  expurgation  of  anti-slavery  sentiments  from  its  reprints,  642. 

Veracity,  want  of  it,  in  the  advocates  of  slavery,  459. 

Virginia,  a  breeding  State  for  the  southern  market,  264. 

Union  of  the  States,  effect  of  its  dissolution  on  slavery,  357;  conditions 
on  "which  the  slave-holders  will  continue  it,  612. 

Webster,  Daniel,  584,  591,  602,  610,  613,  616,  626,  633. 

West  Indies,  apprenticeship  and  emancipation,  186;  proportion  of 
whites  to  slaves,  188. 

Wilberforce,  his  protest  against  the  Colonization  Society,  122. 


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